You might not have heard of it, but Monster Strike is one of Japan's biggest smartphone games, and pulls in daily revenues in excess of $4 million. Think Puzzle & Dragons, but even bigger.
Co-created by former Konami and Capcom employee Yoshiki Okamoto (1942, Final Fight, Street Fighter II) and currently available on Android and iOS devices, this physics-based fantasy RPG is coming to Japanese 3DS consoles on 17th December, and a rather strange commercial has been released to promote this fact.
The advert shows various Santas getting copies of Monster Strike 3DS ready for Christmas day, and ends with the claim that the game is "very asobemasu", which roughly translates as "very enjoyable to play". We don't know about you, but we might have to start using that phrase more often in everyday life.
If you'd rather see more of the game than people pretending to be Santa, then check out this trailer:
There's no word on whether or not Monster Strike 3DS will get a western release, but Puzzle & Dragons made the jump, so you never know. Would you like to see it in your region? Let us know by monster striking the comments below.
Comments 19
Looks interesting enough that I would give it a go. After all of the Japanese like it that much then I usually do as well.
They really like their monsters in Japan, don't they?
Japanese celebrate Christmas ?
"Very Asobemasu" rhymes with "Merry Christmas"
Was completely unaware of what this was until now. Had heard the name, of course. But that was it. The trailer made me want to play Squids Odyssey again.
Looks like a fun game. I'd pick it up.
@Stu13 There is even a short-length anime series currently on japanese TV, probably to promote the incoming console game.
@Nintend0ro I've been to Japan during the holiday season and there were Christmas trees and reindeer and all that jazz on streets, stores, etc.
@Nintend0ro Yes, but it's very different than in the Western world. In Japan, Christmas is mostly for couples. It's a holiday for going on a romantic date with your boy/girlfriend and eat Christmas cake.
Weird that they left in the English Audio in the commercial
あそびます
@WaveGhoul Arguably, Punch-out is more fitting for consoles (though possible on portables), and there IS Metroid Federation Force, but considering we havent heard much about the game since the disproportionate "fan" outrage of E3 '15, that's probably in dev limbo right now, if not cancelled.
@DiscoGentleman Asobemasu doesn't mean "to play", it literally means "can be played". Hence Damien translated it as "enjoyable to play", similar to "playable".
"To play" would simply be asobimasu, not asobemasu.
It made absolutely no sense to have the Santas speaking in English while the Japanese narrator spoke over them. Then what was the point of having them speak at all? Couldn't they find a jolly fat Japanese-speaking white person? Hell, it's not as if it's difficult to read transliteration of Japanese speech in a convincing way.
@Nintend0ro : In a commercial sense, yes, which really isn't all that different to how the Western world reveres Christmas nowadays. It's quite sad, really. Just a couple of years ago, so many of the houses in my neighbourhood were adorned with Christmas lights. Last year, there was hardly anything at all. This year, there's practically nothing. Sure, it's arguably a little early, but Christmas lights generally go up before the end of November.
Even if reverence appeared in the form of homes with Christmas lights, it was better than seeing no reverence at all. While I'm not a Christian, it is disheartening to see what should be a sacred holiday be reduced to nothing more than commercial enterprise.
@Nintend0ro One of the biggest romantic holidays of the year in Japan....and KFC sellout season. My Aikido-sensei complains every year because when she goes to visit the folks either she or one of her brothers gets stuck getting KFC...to the point that they do rock, paper, scissors to get out of it.
Never heard of this game but Puzzle and Dragons on my android made me buy PADZ on 3DS, so I will also check out Monster Strike on my phone. Maybe I'll wait impatiently for a western release, maybe I'll be content for a week and lose my daily check-in bonus and uninstall. I do find it a little morose that so many smartphone games are getting story modes and being re-released for $39.99 when the phone version is free.
It's good to see Okamoto-san back on the winners list after Flagship collapsed under the weight of massive debt. For someone who played a significant role in the development of Street Fighter Zero 3 he deserved better than to run a start up into the ground.
Wait english Santa's does this hint at a localisation.... Nope no it doesn't sadly, I was a fan of puzzle and dragons the original version
Nightmares engaged
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