Real name: Unknown
Occupation: Professional criminal
Base of operations: Gotham City
Eyes: Unknown
Hair: Unknown

Born a prisoner for crimes committed by his father, the child who would become Bane survived cruel solitary confinement in a Santa Prisca prison. During his long lonely years, he developed incredible powers of concentration, and, once released into the prison population, studied every book he could get his hands on. After nearly four decades of imprisonment, he was chosen for a military experiment with the drug Venom, which greatly enhanced his strength. Escaping, he sought out Batman to prove himself to the world by destroying the greatest specimen of mankind. Bane broke Batman, but the Dark Knight went on to recover and defeat Bane.

• Master strategist
• Enhanced stamina
• Enhanced strength
• Superior hand-to-hand combatant

After his circus aerialist parents were murdered by criminals, young Dick Grayson was adopted by Bruce Wayne, becoming his ward...and his partner in the war against crime as Batman's sidekick, Robin. Years later, Robin struck out on his own as Nightwing and now lives in the corruption ridden city of Blüdhaven where by day he serves as a member of that city's police department...and patrols its streets by night as Nightwing.

Attributes:

• Expert in most known forms of martial arts
• Trained in all aspects of criminology
• Trained gymnast
• Trained in stealth and espionage techniques
• Expert escape artist

Powers and Abilities:

In LEGO Batman: The Videogame, Nightwing is a bonus character, he can also utilize all of Robin’s technology suits.

Real name: Basil Karlo
Occupation: Former Actor, Professional Criminal
Base of operations: Mobile
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black

Initially an actor in horror films, Karlo went mad when he learned a classic film of his was to be remade. He donned the mask of the film’s villain, Clayface, and killed several of the remake’s cast and crew before being stopped by Batman and Robin. Later, Karlo joined a collection of villains who subsequently used the name Clayface in an alliance that came to be known as the Mud Pack. While that group was defeated, Karlo tricked his allies, injecting himself with the essences of several of them, becoming a superhuman imbued with the abilities to change shape, melt others into protoplasm with a touch, and mimic the powers of heroes or villains he copies.

Attributes:

• Clayface can alter his physical form, adopting the appearance of anyone or anything.
• If those whose appearance he adopts have super powers, he copies those as well.
• His touch can reduce an enemy to proptoplasm.

Powers and Abilities:

In LEGO Batman: The Videogame, Clayface has the ability of super jump allowing him to jump to heights unattainable by other characters and even make his body elastic to reach higher characters. Clayface also has the ability of super strength, enabling him to pick up super strength objects and smash super strength walls.

Namco Bandai has released a new trailer regarding their announcement of Tales of Vesperia at the Jump Festa 2008 event.

The game will feature cel-shaded graphics with character designs and animation managed by Kosuke Fujishima and Production I.G. The platform and release date details have yet to be announced.

Check the link to download the trailer, or just hit the jump to view.

As I’m sure you can tell from the title, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales is, quite simply, child’s play, a title developed so that both children and adults can enjoy those giant yellow, fun-loving, eager-to-please birds called chocobos that have proven a staple of every Final Fantasy game. For the first time since the relative disaster that was Chocobo Racing (1999) on the original PlayStation, the chocobos are back in their own premier title, ready to weave a spell of classic storytelling with a Final Fantasy twist upon both the young and the old. Strangely, the game’s friendly nuances, colorful atmosphere, and fun minigames make Chocobo Tales an enjoyable retreat from the fast-paced action/adventure games that make up the bulk of a gamer’s diet, and the title is much simpler than a regular Square Enix RPG, making for easier pick-up-and-play moments. Gather around for story-time: depending on your age group, this could be a winner.

The overall plot for Chocobo Tales is simple and direct, with minor twists and turns paired with fun or witty dialogue to keep the player interested regardless of age. Gamers are cast as a young yellow chocobo fond of a storytelling white mage who has gathered all her chocobo friends together for a fantastical treat, but as these things tend to go, the fun is spoiled by a thrifty black mage who has just purchased a rare storybook. The book, of course, is cursed, and as the black mage recites its spell it comes to life as Bebuzzu, a wicked fellow who proceeds to eat all the chocobos and retreat until a “dark” woman appears. It’s now up to you to free your birdy friends from Bebuzzu’s grasp by collecting their cards throughout the environment which, by the way, you navigate entirely with the status.

The usual method for freeing your friends involves completing tasks from various storybooks containing traditional fables (Three Little Pigs, Ugly Duckling, Jack and the Beanstalk, etc) told with Final Fantasy flair. Each storybook contains three options: trial (in which you attempt to meet a gameplay requirement for a reward), battle (you against AI-controlled chocobo opponents), and storytime (which gives the prologue/theme for each book; keep in mind that you can unlock new epilogues for completing certain goals). The story is told in colorful pop-up fashion, with cut-out characters interacting in the book’s picturesque environment. In Titan and the Beanstalk vol. 1 players help their chocobo climb the humongous plant by drawing leaves to propel the chocobo up, all while avoiding the hazardous bombs along the way; in vol. 2, gamers race down the stalk by drawing leaves that are used to slide the chocobo back down to earth, collecting coins to beat opponents. In Ugly Chocoling, players utilize a magnifying glass to find a flaming bird; in Shiva and Ifrit, gamers collect fruit without being frozen or burned alive by the ice and fire raining down upon the poor chocobo’s head. The majority of these storybook minigames are enjoyable and of an appropriate difficulty for children, though a few of them sport some tough spots to keep the title challenging.

To keep the storybook minigames from posing too much of a distraction Square also included microgames that are just as fun and entertaining as the minigames are. In Malboro Masher the object is to tap the screen whenever a malboro appears on the grid, but tapping a bomb by mistake ends the game. Job Juggler is a lovely nostalgic game in which a sprite representing a Final Fantasy class jumps across the screen and you have to identify its job from rows of class options. While both microgames and minigames give card awards, the minigames serve a double purpose, often manipulating the environment so the chocobo can proceed to the next area.

All this card business probably has you wondering what you’re supposed to do with your set other than examining their pretty pictures. Besides including mini and microgames, Square has capitalized on everyone’s strange fascination with card battling by including the option in Chocobo Tales in place of real fighting. Card battles are turn-based and give both you and your AI opponent three random cards pulled from a deck; each card has four colored zones that can feature either an attack (sword) or guard (shield) zone. If your card’s blue zone has a sword and the opponent’s card has a blue zone with a shield, your attack is blocked; if his card’s blue zone is blank, however, it goes through. There’s an element of speed introduced for the card battles, as the first person to select his card choice goes first, and it should be noted that any successful attack made against your card character will go straight on through to your chocobo, lowering his HP; when his HP reaches zero, it sucks to be you.

If single-player gameplay isn’t your thing, Square has included some multiplayer options for the adventurous. You can hop on Nintendo’s Wi-Fi option for a pop-up duel with players across the globe, which is especially enjoyable considering that human opponents are considerably more challenging than the AI ones offered in the storyline. Online play also motivates the player to collect additional cards via completing tougher challenges in storybooks, which grants further replay value.

Square is renown for creating wonderful visual presentations for its games, and Chocobo Tales receives the same star treatment. Your 3D chocobo explores a lush, vibrant 3D environment complete with small houses, forests, streams, and even a volcano. Movement is performed via lightly sliding the stylus across the screen, although you can use the D-pad if you prefer. The pop-up characters in storybooks and card battles are another visual treat, and special effects occur during card battles when you or your opponent pulls a card with a unique ability. Acoustically, you get the same Final Fantasy themes you’re familiar with, like the famous chocobo song, paired with ambient noises like choco-footsteps and squawks.

Though Chocobo Tales sports enjoyable micro and minigames as well as online play, a few of its games can become quite irritating. For example, in Titan and the Beanstalk the player has to draw leaves to propel the chocobo upward, but taking the time to draw an actual leaf is a waste – instead, draw a line or the top of a triangle to orient the leaf properly or you’ll spend the next hour bouncing all over the place. You’ll run into little problems related to drawing items or directing your chocobo in numerous minigames, but while frustrating, they still require only minimal effort to work around.

Probably the game’s biggest fault is its target audience, as the game often feels far too cutesy and childish for adults. Then again, it’s full of chocobos and moogles, so what can one expect?

Though you can send games to friends, you can only send microgames, which aren’t anywhere as pleasing or as cute as the storybook minigames. As for online play, there are plenty of gamers to compete against, but don’t be surprised by the standard disconnects.

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales is a surprisingly pleasant game if you’re into fast pick-up-and-play gameplay and are enticed by cute visuals, card collecting, and card battling. It’s a fairly quick adventure, though, and a bit too easy to maintain an adult’s interest when more complex, similar titles are available. If you’re a Final Fantasy fan or enjoy card games, it’s more than worth a look, and especially if you’re under the age of 15. Others may want to rent first.

It’s much too simple for my tastes, but it’s functional and cute.

Very adorable visuals. Love the cut-out character design.

Standard Final Fantasy themes.

You’ll enjoy card battling and some of the mini and microgames.

If you love card battling, Chocobo Tales has got the hook-up.

]]> Sat, 28 Apr 2007 14:03:00 -0500 Shiva Stella http://www.gamebump.com/go/square_ships_fff_chocobo_tales_to_ds http://www.gamebump.com/go/square_ships_fff_chocobo_tales_to_ds http://www.gamebump.com/go/square_ships_fff_chocobo_tales_to_ds# This article was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Certain formatting, imaged, and embedded content may have been lost in the transition process.

Namco Bandai has announced that its Tales of Legendia for the PlayStation 2 has shipped to North American retailers. The game is a PS2 exclusive RPG that features a real-time fighting mechanic influenced by the Soul Calibur series and took several years to develop.Tales of Legendia combines the depth and storytelling of a traditional RPG with the action and strategy of a fighting game, while taking on fearsome enemies with the game’s new Crossover Linear Motion Battle System (X-LiMBS). Influenced by the acclaimed Soul Calibur series of fighting games, X-LiMBS lets players unleash attacks never before seen together in a role playing game that including throws, rapid fire combos, and potent team attacks. Boasting detailed and vibrant 3D graphics, Tales of Legendia features an all-new cast of characters and close to 30 minutes of anime cut scenes featuring characters designed by artist Kazuto Nakazawa, renowned for his work on the animated sequences in Kill Bill: Volume 1 and the anime series Samurai Champloo.

Said Yoshi Niki, business unit director at Namco Bandai Games America, "We are very excited that Tales of Legendia will introduce PlayStation 2 owners to the Tales series because it delivers what the Tales series has always been known for – a fun and compelling role-playing experience. With its innovative combat system and top-notch story telling, Tales of Legendia is sure to be on the ‘must play’ list of role-playing fans everywhere."The game is rated Teen by the ESRB and carries an MSRP of $49.99. You can view our own preview by clicking here.

]]> Tue, 07 Feb 2006 11:15:00 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_tales_of_legendia_ps21 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_tales_of_legendia_ps21 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_tales_of_legendia_ps21# This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Eric Dayday.

Namco’s Tales series hasn’t been one of the more popular RPG franchises in the states, but it’s definitely no new kid on the block. It’s seen a number of different games in the series, most never making it over to these shores. In the summer of 2004, Tales finally broke through with Tales of Symphonia on the GameCube. RPG loving ‘Cube owners flocked to it because it was one of the few games of that genre to hit Nintendo’s little console. What fans were treated to was a fantastic game featuring a fun real-time battle system. It was eventually ported to the PS2 in Japan and paved the way for the newest game – Tales of Legendia, which releases next Tuesday.

The epic story starts off with the brother-sister pair of Senel and Shirley Coolidge. They’re adrift at sea and Shirley is gradually growing sicker by the minute, showing a weakness to the poisonous sea air that surrounds them. Suddenly, a large flash of light swallows them up and they then find themselves washed up on a beach – or at least that’s what they think it is. It’s actually an enormous floating island. In typical RPG-fashion, the inhabitants take the sick Shirley away while Senel screams questions asking why at them. From there, the rest of the story unravels with a number of other characters joining Senel on his journey.

The battle system in Legendia will feel very familiar to Tales fans, though those coming directly from Symphonia will be most at home here. Battles, however, are now initiated through random encounters. [Ed. note: Preview updated and edited with information that random battles are present.] The 2D linear battle system returns, though you can still expect to get hit from all sides if you’re surrounded. In battle, you have control over one character while the rest of the party acts according to the AI you’ve set in the menus. Hitting the X button initiates a standard melee combo, which you can aim to hit flying enemies or crouching ones.

“Eres” sounds like a new facet to fighting, but in fact it’s just a new moniker for the old and familiar techs. These eres are what you’ll be using to cause massive amounts of damage in battles. Iron eres are melee special moves while crystal eres are what most would consider typical magic attacks. Most eres are character specific and learning new ones involves the repeated use of the eres already in your arsenal. The more powerful eres tend to be combinations of lower leveled ones, so using them often is always a prudent move. However, each use of an eres eats up a character’s TP, or technical points. At the end of a battle, there’s a partial restoration of the TP, but don’t rely on that, especially in lengthy dungeons. The best way to restore TP is landing solid non-eres type hits on enemies; so as long as you can string some combos together, you shouldn’t find yourself struggling to regain TP too often.

One large difference is the lack of the unison attacks. And so, instead of building up a unison attack bar, you’ll be filling up a climax bar with each subsequent hit. When it is finally filled, you can activate it using the L1 button. Doing so freezes all the enemies for a couple of seconds, allowing you to get in a ton of free licks. Just imagine how useful that will be in when you find yourself in a pinch during a boss fight.

Other returning mechanics are titles and cooking. Titles are earned in different ways, such as running away a certain number of times with a particular person in the party or reaching a combo plateau. These titles are character specific and by “equipping” a title, they’ll earn stat bonuses at each level up. Thus, you can technically create a custom character by selecting a title that adds bonuses in a stat category you want to build up. Want a high defense magic caster or a melee fighter with a ton of TP so you can spam eres attacks? If you have the right title, you can do so.

Cooking is one of the Tales series’ more interesting mini-games. But, thinking of it as a mini-game is a little misleading because it can help you out in dire situations. Cooking involves finding recipes and ingredients. Recipes are usually found from other NPCs, while ingredients can be bought at stores or found through enemy drops. At the end of a battle, you can cook to restore HP, TP, or status ailments depending on what dish you chose in the menu. The catch is that your party members have rankings for each dish. If they’re bad at cooking a dish there’s a good chance cooking will fail and you’ll waste ingredients without gaining the restoration you were looking for. It’s smart to set up a good cook with a dish that you’ll think you’ll need for your next trek.

A big change to the series is the use of 3D models for the characters. The old PS1 Tales featured colorful 2D sprites and Symphonia used cel-shading to maintain the cartoony look without appearing horribly outdated. As a fan of that look, I was a bit skeptical of this new direction, but the more I was exposed to it, the more I grew to love it. And it’s not like it is ugly. It just took me a little while to adjust to it and I’m pretty sure I’m in the minority when it comes to this.

The Tales series has always had a solid showing and even though the momentum Namco had from Symphonia is long gone, Tales of Legendia is shaping up to be hit in the RPG community. Though the story looks cliché from just the first couple of minutes, there’s no telling where the story will lead. The fast-paced battle system and slight degrees of customization look like it may equal the fun and great times fans had with Tales of Symphonia. In fact, now that it’s on the PS2 and its wider installed user base, it may surpass it. Look for it on shelves next week.]]> Tue, 31 Jan 2006 14:58:00 -0600