Nintendo Download: 16th June 2009 (Japan)

I'm wondering how the Tambourine game will turn out. The cutesy style and the gameplay looks like it could have potential but it could flop too.

And what's this? ANOTHER VCA TITLE? At least it's one I don't care for.

This is strange, this is pretty small, even for Japan.

FF2? we don't even have FF1 yet do we?

It's time to pay NOJ a very evil visit!!!

Hopefully we start getting the Final Fantasy games soon.

Well, if I'm not mistaken the first two or three didn't get release outside of Japan; hopefully once they hit the ones that did we'll see those. I'm also looking forward to them since I never played them and the RPG games that are presently on the VC have little appeal for me.

@Terranignma: learning Japanese isn't really necessary for playing Darius, though is it? Super Darius and Super Darius II have no Japanese in them whatsoever!

This is what the Japanese would consider a low quality update, it's what the americans/europeans/aussies would consider too good to be true

Agreed. I'm happy to save my remaining Japanese shop points for the future. I'm sure there will be a VCA release next week of interest like Sky Kids or Rolling Thunder; maybe Golden Axe?

Once again, another VCA update for them even though there is a better one out already on the VC (from what I read in this article), but the point they got another VCA game is starting to wear my patience thin.

@Sean Aaron #7
I know the first FF game was released normally (albeit a few years later) in NA. It was after the first game that the NA releases became all wonky (with NA's FF2 actually being FF4, etc)

Ah, I had thought FFIV was the first one released in North America. It would be groovy if Square Enix put in the effort and released the missing chapters with translations, unless they're not that great -- any FF fans can comment?

@Atlantis1982: I became a fan of Wonder Momo after playing it in Namco Museum R which was the Japan-only sixth part Namco released for the Playstation (it also had Motos, Rolling Thunder, Dragon Saber, King and Balloon, Sky Kid and the awesome Rompers on it). The PC Engine version is pretty much identical (it's not an impressive game to start with) with some risque interstitials of the titular Momo laying about in a schoolgirl uniform, bikini and I've not gotten that far into the game, but I expect more!

If you can find video of it on YouTube you'll no doubt wonder why anyone would like this, but there's something about it I cannot explain. It's a weird game; I was actually surprised it ever got ported to any home console to begin with!

Aw, man! FF2J on VC?! C'mon! Somebody translate that!

Can I have Mochi Mochi Q please, goo with tilt. Sweet!

FFIIIJ is an excellent game. Definitely worth a translation. It was the first FF to feature a Job Change system, in that you can choose to change to different jobs such as Warrior, Monk, Black Wizard, etc., and level up a certain job (as seen again later in Final Fantasy V). I've played it on an emulator with a fan-translated rom, and it really is a lot of fun. The updated DS version of FFIII is good too, but the NES version just has a certain appeal to me, with the graphics and sound effects and all that.

FFIIJ is not really that great, in my opinion. A lot of people really enjoy the game, but I've never been able to play beyond two hours into the game. It is just so uninteresting to me, and the level system in that game is kind of strange (and easy to exploit). The leveling system is that there are no character levels, just levels for each stat, type of weapon, and type of magic. Your MP goes up if you use a lot of MP in a battle, your STR goes up if you attack a lot in battle, etc. etc. At any rate, I have always gotten bored when I try to play through this game, whether on an emulator, on the PSX version (FF Origins), or on the GBA version. Also being that this game has been released several times in the US (PSX, GBA, PSP....) I don't think it is worth downloading the original on the VC, if it ever comes our way that is.

^hush you, FF2 is awesome. You just need to know how to play properly, which is simple enough - everyone in the front row, give everyone a shield and a different type of weapon (not fists), give everyone Cure, Life and Heal, and don't bother "exploiting" the system - it's not only boring and completely unnessecary, but comes back to bite you in the ass later. And really - the importance of using shields can not be stated enough - way too many people miss out on how useful they are due to later titles that allow dual-wielding of weapons generally making shields worthless, as well as the fact that the shields won't make a difference right away. USE SHIELDS IN FF2.

Seriously, most everyone expressing dislike for FF2 seem to be getting their ideas on how to play the game from guidewriters who neither understood it or liked it themselves. There's a ridiculous amount of FF2 guides out there that spread the idea that "you must grind" and "FF2 is a bad game". Play it normally, the way it was intended, and it's a very entertaining game.

To SeanAaron (post #7)
You're right, but you should be interested in knowing that Final Fantasy 2 Famicom was translated into english for the states. There is online a copy of the game, the promotional materials, box art and more ready to go and it never came just like Earthbound which did get released too (Mother 1.)

I know it's a VERY long shot, but as greedy as Square has been with their downloads on Nintendo systems I wouldn't put it passed them to shovel it out at a good $10 premium on an import tag release instead of the usual +$1 bit like most.

Somehow, I can never get jealous with Japan. They're the gaming capital of the world. If it weren't for them, Nintendo or Sony wouldn't exist.

Japan already has WoG, so if they're smart enough, they should buy it, instead of this rip-off...

Mochi Mochi sounds very interesting.

To be fair to Mochi Mochi Q it only looks like WoG in the fact that there's little blobby things with eyes. I cannot see any evidence of tower building. We also don't know the development cycle for this game; maybe it started at the same time?

Nice info on the Final Fantasy series guys. Did FFI ever get released overseas in any form?

I actually really liked FFIIJ, the GBA version at least, (not as much as FFI but I digress.) Sadly, I lost interest shortly before the end. It's one I mean to restart...Anyway, I hope FF comes to NA/EU VC soon!

Honestly, that pic (Mochi Mochi Q) reminded me of Super Paper Mario and Mario and Luigi: PiT. lol I don't know why.

Anyways, good week for Japan, like almost always.

Sean, FF1 got a good PS1 port and a couple utterly horrible GBA and PSP ports. The original NES game was never released here.

FFII sucks. The experience system is crap and remains as one of three of the 8 games in the series I've played that I never bothered to finish. The others were FF III and FF XII.

@Sean

Point is: I am complaining that Namco is 'refusing' to share some of the VCA loving to the other regions. Besides, I like the weird stuff.