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Ancient (Yuzo Koshiro) announces Mamotte Knight for Xbox360 Indies

duckroll

Member
Official Site: http://www.ancient.co.jp/~game/mamotte_knight/

Blog: http://ancgames.blog28.fc2.com/

Note: To play the demo, you need to install XNA. It's free and it's on Microsoft's site.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=53867a2a-e249-4560-8011-98eb3e799ef2

Yuzo Koshiro's development studio Ancient is releasing games on Xbox360 Indies. The first title is Mamotte Knight, and will be released in Spring 2010. There is a nicovideo trailer of the game on the site and blog, and if you click on the diskette you can download a PC demo. Unfortunately, I think the PC demo requires Japanese Windows to run. I can't get it running on my system anyway.

Koshiro is also composing for the game.

shot1.png


shot2.png
 

InfiniteNine

Rolling Girl
duckroll said:
Unfortunately, I think the PC demo requires Japanese Windows to run. I can't get it running on my system anyway.]
They are pulling this crap on non-H games as well? This regional block is getting annoying.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
duckroll said:
Unfortunately, I think the PC demo requires Japanese Windows to run. I can't get it running on my system anyway.
My friend actually used to get around something similar to this for Korean games if this error is what I think it is.

You have to change something in the Regional and Language Options in the Control Panel.

Edit:

Apparently it's in the Advance Tab, languages for non-unicode programs.

Unless that's what just failed for MCD.
 

luka

Loves Robotech S1
Wow. Would buy just for Koshiro. (That is if I had a 360 ): )
This looks absolutely mental. A full PC release would be great, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Haven't tried the demo yet but it will work if you set your system region to Japan. You can't really region lock windows. :p
 

InfiniteNine

Rolling Girl
Nirolak said:
My friend actually used to get around something similar to this for Korean games if this error is what I think it is.

You have to change something in the Regional and Language Options in the Control Panel.

Edit:

Apparently it's in the Advance Tab, languages for non-unicode programs.

Unless that's what just failed for MCD.
Some software companies have been restricting access by checking the version of Windows was installed, but I'm going to check if it's the old change the time/regional setting to Japanese.
EDIT: EXE wont even load correctly, but I have no idea if its because of regional blocks.
 

duckroll

Member
I got the demo working my other PC. Set the language settings for Windows XP to Japanese, and downloaded and installed XNA. Played a bit of it. It's amusing, but not something I would buy. Might be better with other players, not sure.

Edit: You do not need to set your language settings to Japanese either. You just need XNA installed.
 

duckroll

Member
bluemax said:
What kind of game is this?

It's kinda like tower defense mixed with action. You control one guy who has a melee and a range attack. There are defenses around the middle and a princess at the center. Monsters keep coming in waves to attack, and you have to keep them away and beat them. Sometimes bosses show up. You can "repair" the defenses by hitting them as well. When you clear a stage you get points based on how many structures remain standing, and you can put points to upgrade the character's attacks, health, etc.
 

InfiniteNine

Rolling Girl
Well the interface seems English friendly, is there any text that would need to be translated in it Duckroll? I might buy this to have something to play with my roommates besides Bomberman Ultra, and BlazBlue.
 
REMEMBER CITADEL said:
Looks positively crazy. Are there regional locks on the Indie channel?

Also, nice manboobs.

e00iag.png

Developers can choose to not release games in some regions. Somewhat pointless to do that though, almost all games are released in all Indie Game supported regions.
 

duckroll

Member
InfiniteNine said:
Well the interface seems English friendly, is there any text that would need to be translated in it Duckroll? I might buy this to have something to play with my roommates besides Bomberman Ultra, and BlazBlue.

Aside from the control schemes and stuff, everything seems to be in English. It'll probably be localized before they release anyway I imagine.
 

InfiniteNine

Rolling Girl
duckroll said:
Aside from the control schemes and stuff, everything seems to be in English. It'll probably be localized before they release anyway I imagine.
Looking at the site, there is a chalk outline for a US flag that isn't clickable, so I guess a localization is at least planned for now. Thanks for the info duckroll!
 
Woohoo! Love the intro with the Famicom cart being blown on before being reinserted. Sounds great, looks great! Cannot wait to try out and probably purchase. I won't lie, though. I am now salivating at the thought of new beat 'em ups or action adventures for Indie Games (or Arcade) from Ancient. Arika, Ancient, Miracle Kidz, Arkedo, Halfbrick, Mommy's Best Games, etc. Some seriously good shit on the Indie front...only needs more exposure.
 
Beat the PC demo. Gets pretty nuts with so much on screen. With dozens of enemies, and a big dragon stomping past 1/3 the stage. And looks like it will probably get way crazier in the full version.
 

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso
....woah. That is unexpected! Very awesome, though. This looks right up my alley. Thank you Indie games! This service really is starting to provide some super quality games, and I can honestly say I don't think we'd see something like this on a home console without it. (Maybe on the Wii, but that wouldn't be made for wide screen, but close!)

I'd love to see some nods to his previous works in this game... I love how nostalgic the artwork looks. Like a weird mix of Athena, Dragon Quest, Phantasy Star, and a Valis game... very cool! Oh, and Karnov's screwball cousin decided to pay a visit, too.
 
I think MS may need to rename Indie Games again to something more mainstream. It's getting too hot :)

I'll be buying this for the music alone.
 
duckroll said:
Ancient made Streets of Rage? News to me...

And the Beyond Oasis/Story of Thor series.

Once you know about their former greatness, it's hard to accept they keep on making those obscure, little flash games nowadays. What a waste of talent.
 

mujun

Member
Instigator said:
And the Beyond Oasis/Story of Thor series.

Once you know about their former greatness, it's hard to accept they keep on making those obscure, little flash games nowadays. What a waste of talent.

Ever thought that they might be doing what they want to do?
 

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso
Instigator said:
And the Beyond Oasis/Story of Thor series.

Once you know about their former greatness, it's hard to accept they keep on making those obscure, little flash games nowadays. What a waste of talent.

I think you're just trying to live up to your name...

The best thing about talented people, are that the best of them are not restricted to one genre or idea. True talent can branch out. And after playing the demo, I can easily say, there's no waste here. There's more quality and old-school charm at work here than many over-complex works of the modern day age.

If this game here were the best Koshiro-san could make with a FFXIII size budget, then, yes, I'd agree that this is a "mighty have fallen" moment. But this is just a fun, inexpensive self-published title, with some shockingly H.Q. 8-bit music and pixelwork, a throwback to a game genre that never was at that time.

In the same day, Gears of War 3 and Mamotte Knight were announced. And I can truthfully say this game is much more plesant, exciting reveal for me.
 

mujun

Member
Instigator said:
Then they're loafing around. Imagine Miyamoto reduced to this.

A waste of talent.

I wouldn't give a shit. I might be in the minority but I have no trouble finding something to love gaming wise. I often wish there were more hours in the day so I could spread the love around a bit more.

More power to the loafer if that's what makes him happy!
 
And Ancient has been loafing around for almost 15 years. They've made nothing really relevant all this time.

Please, leave the small, flash game stuff to upstart developers and individual enthusiasts.
 

duckroll

Member
Instigator said:
Then they're loafing around. Imagine Miyamoto reduced to this.

A waste of talent.

I'm not sure I see the comparison. You're talking as if Ancient is some huge great developer that made groundbreaking and amazing games in the past. That's not the case. The only franchise of note created and fully developed by Ancient is the Oasis series. Most people do not consider the Actraiser games and Streets of Rage 2 to be "Ancient" games because they're not. They're co-developed.

Ancient is basically just a tiny company owned by Yuzo Koshiro and used to represent him and his sister. They have a few other employees, but over the two decades they have never had more than 20 employees. Games like Streets of Rage 2 and the Actraiser games are only co-developed by Ancient because of his sister's involvement as a planner/writer/artist. The games are directed by other people, and much of the work is not by Ancient.

Over 70% of the work Ancient has done in their history has been licensed games and work for hire stuff. This includes stuff like Streets of Rage 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog for Game Gear. If anything, we should be happy that they're actually working on original games on Xbox Indies now - stuff that they are publishing themselves and have full creative freedom over. As opposed to... the Hitman Reborn Battle Arena games on PSP. :p
 
Instigator said:
And Ancient has been loafing around for almost 15 years. They've made nothing really relevant all this time.

Please, leave the small, flash game stuff to upstart developers and individual enthusiasts.

What??? Dude... what is wrong with you?

They can do what they want... and plenty of small games are made by incredibly giften developers/designers. I think you watched too many hour long CGI cutscenes. Your brain is fried.
 

Kai Dracon

Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
Instigator said:
And Ancient has been loafing around for almost 15 years. They've made nothing really relevant all this time.

Please, leave the small, flash game stuff to upstart developers and individual enthusiasts.

You're making yourself sound like a pimply fanboy who doesn't actually know the first thing about the developers he is criticizing. See Duckroll's post.

Yuzo Koshiro is primarily a musician and idea man. His sister is a concept artist. They've never been big-time game developers. Like most fanboy urban legends, probably half the stuff attributed to them isn't even true.

By the way, did you know Miyamoto has hobbies that don't even involve making more Super Mario Galaxy for you. Isn't that so f**king lazy? What a disgrace. He should come in to work on weekends and write Fox McCloud slash for his fans, to whom he owes all his time and effort.
 
The last game I remember by Ancient before this one was Valtva on the Saturn.

So who gives a fuck?

Arika works on XNA and they used to make Street Fighter and Megaman games for crying out loud.
 

sciplore

Member
The demo was fun. Annoying that I had to figure out the controls because it only showed how to play it with the 360 pad. I can see this being a crazy party game with all four players. I just love the old school pixel work and anime artstyle :D.
 
This looks interesting. I hope there's a music test section so I can hear all the great music even if I can't finish the game.

Indie games is really coming into it's own. Sure, there are 15 crap titles for every jewel, just like the iPhone appstore, but the rating system does it's job pretty well. People should really check out the top-rated titles if they haven't jumped into the Indie Games section lately or at all.
 
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