With so much news coming out of E3 a few weeks ago and only so many pages in a magazine, Famitsu has struggled to keep up with it all. Like last week, ample E3 news buried a few shining gems of information about upcoming Nintendo games, along with a couple obscure titles that will likely never see the light of day in the West.

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Previews

Our first preview this week was of Aikatsu Stars! My Special Appeal and Aikatsu Stars! First Appeal, both idol games based on an anime. My Special Appeal looks like a socialization and decorating game, where First Appeal is a free-to-play rhythm game due out this summer. While certain Japanese idol games have been popular in the West, this series doesn't look like it will leave Japan anytime soon.

Like last week, Puzzle & Dragons X saw some coverage. Last time, Famitsu focused on the Soul Armor and Capture mechanics in the game, while this week took a look at the main town we can explore if the game ever makes it out of Japan. The town includes shops for customising Soul Armor and the captured creatures, and has other places to buy, sell, and obtain quests – all fairly standard for an RPG and reminiscent of the Etrian Odyssey games. The most unusual shop, the Gatcha store, will scratch your gambling itch well. Players can spend currency to obtain random Gatcha Dragons – which are small toys obtained from vending machines – and then trade the rarer Gatcha Dragons for items and monsters.

We were excited to see a two page spread for Pokémon Sun and Moon but there was no new information here, only a regurgitation of the same news we heard at E3 a few weeks ago. This includes four-way battles and the reveals of Pekipek, Yungoos, and Grubbin.

Zero Time Dilemma also received more publicity this week despite its published review for the game last week. Since it's already released, we skipped over the readily available information and moved onto translating the two reviews released this week instead.

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Reviews

There were only four reviews published this week and two were on Nintendo systems. A downloadable game titled Slime No Yabou impressed the reviewers, earning a respectable 8/8/7/7 for a total of 30/40 points. An RPG clearly inspired by the likes of Final Fantasy Tactics, Slime No Yabou pits humans and slimes against one another in turn-based battles. The reviewers praised the pixel graphics and variety of difficulties. Once again, there's no word of the game being localised [Update, this one is apparently being translated for the West].

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Next was a review for Culdcept Revolt, an RPG card game which received two Japan-only Nintendo Directs, both of which Nintendo Life reported on. As a long awaited new release, fans of the series can breathe easy: Culdcept Revolt pulled in a 8/8/8/9 for a 33/40. Because the game is steeped in rules and complexity, the reviewers especially appreciated how well thought out the tutorial was. The ease of entry and depth kept them engaged for hours. Hopefully, such praise will convince Nintendo to localise another Culdcept game for the first time in 14 years.


That's all we have for this week. Culdcept Revolt also had a two-page spread detailing in-game cards and a lengthy interview with a developer from Marvelous, the company behind Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns, but neither featured any outwardly notable information.

Check back next week when Famitsu hopefully catches up with E3 and reports some exciting Nintendo news.

Thanks again to Arina for helping us translate!