Huzzah for Localization Announcements!

At TGS, Level-5 went and did the thing we all have hoped for for quite a while and announced that their crossover game with Studio Ghibli, Ni no Kuni:  Queen of the White Holy Ashes, is actually getting localized for America and will be out at some point next year.  Honestly, I said from day one that I was pretty sure we'd get the game, but there always was a little part of me that wondered, that feared we would not.  Those fears have been assuaged, however, and now all I can do is anxiously await an actual release date so I can start planning how I'm going to pay for it.

Thinking about the game, I'm pretty sure none of us know anything really about it beyond the fact that it looks amazing and is a cooperative project with Studio Ghibli (which would be -why- it looks so good, of course.)  If you're not really familiar with Studio Ghibli's works by the Studio name, you've likely heard of what they've made; the more prominent works being Grave of the Fireflies, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and most recently Ponyo.  And if you've not heard of any of those, then...well...go look them up.  Like right now.  Italics.  I myself have only seen Princess Mononoke and Ponyo, and they were fairly fantastic to watch.  If you're worried about quality, the rather difficult-to-please Movie Meta-Rating website Rotten Tomatoes (which I'm not a fan of, hence not linking) has all their movies (save two) sitting at 80/100 at the lowest.

From what I've seen, I can only expect Ni no Kuni to be an Action RPG, which would be just fine by me.  Looking at the Wiki article for it, all I can see is stuff about a magic book and using the stylus because it's only for the DS version at the moment, so yeah, I'm gonna go with Action RPG.  Still, pretty alright by me if the game is going to look as good as it does in screenshots.  In fact, it'll probably look better in motion, which is almost drool-worthy.  Is it shallow to be all over a game just because how it looks?  I think it is, in theory.  That's fine, I can live with being a shallow gamer for Ni no Kuni.

Also being localized is Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk. II, sequel to this year's Hyperdimension Neptunia (surprise!), pictured above, which won many awards for being the absolute weirdest premise to a game in quite a while.  Set in the world of Gameindustri (seriously), it has something to do with console goddesses and other such things that are representative of the Gaming World today (Seriously, the four Goddesses are based on the PS3, 360, Wii and a fictional Sega Console, the Neptune) and other things that I don't know about since my only exposure is a bit of livestreaming of the game in which I heard one of the characters call another "Thunder Tits" and resolved to buy the game at some point.

Some notable bits of weirdness in the sequel include Keiji Inafune being included in the game as a weapon and...a head that shoots lasers from his mouth.  I made the link as long as possible in hopes that you would go to it and see the pictures in it because...well....as the article says, 'some things you just have to see to believe'.  If you need anything else weird to entice your curiosity then I....well, I think you may need some form of help, but there will also be cameos from, among others, NISA and Gust created characters, much like the first game, if you're into that sort of thing.  Honestly, though, it's not a game that you play because it's going to be...er, great.  It's something you play to see just how absurd this hobby of ours can be and be uplifted by the fact that the playground is this open.

And while this isn't exactly localization based, and just more...er...release-based, there is a new trailer out there for Lollipop Chainsaw and Chance got it first so go see it there.  Because it's Lollipop friggin' Chainsaw and it's going to be awesome.  It is totally Mogs Approved.