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I have little experience with “Musou” games outside of Hyrule Warriors, which I found ultimately satisfying in the end. I do, however, have a metric ton of Dragon Quest experience, having beaten most of the numbered games in the series, played the ones I didn“t finish a great deal, and even dabbled in some of the side games. Instead of lamenting that a Dragon Quest VIII 3DS localization hasn“t happened yet, I“ll tell you a little bit about the Dragon Quest experience we are getting on PlayStation 4 later this year... which happens to be a Musou game at its core. I had a chance to play through both experiences offered in the demo. One put my party in a field where the goal was to eradicate many monsters (one of whom was particularly stronger than the others). And the other was to topple a giant boss monster. Before going into each type of gameplay and what made them alike and different, let“s first discuss how the game operates. Have you played through Hyrule Warriors or any other Musou game? If you have, then you know battling is a matter of mastering combos and using the right attacks at the right time. There are plenty of different variations to attacking and there are many types of characters in your party — from brawlers that focus on close combat, to a mage that can use long and short range spells. You can freely switch between your entire party with just the single press of a button, so you have access to all of your team to fight through any combat situation. The field quest felt more like a typical Musou game, where there are handfuls of enemies to defeat all at once, none of whom required any critical thinking in combat. Smash everything you see, and do so handily. Until there“s something a little stronger that shows up, that leads the squad and makes you think outside the box for just a moment. Still, the “defeat all enemies” portion of the demo had me thinking everything was going to be easy street, then I pictured myself telling you all "It“s Hyrule Warriors, but Dragon Quest." Moving on… When I got to the boss, it was a different matter entirely. Rather than relying on the use of a specific weapon, toppling the giant golem terrorizing the town was a matter of using the town to your advantage; not prioritizing using one unit over another. Want to topple the beast? Find a way to jump onto the actual roofs of buildings and approach it from above with any fighter you choose — whether you zap its eye with a spell, or lunge at it with your blade or fist. Having a little trouble? Build your tension, and let each character reach an actual breaking point where they can then unleash a devastating blow. So, at the end of the day, I suppose it is a Dragon Quest variant of Hyrule Warriors. But the charm of those games is definitely loud and clear in Dragon Quest Heroes. And how the boss worked makes me think this game could offer some unique moments that make it memorable versus just another Musou game. It releases on October 13th, 2015 for PlayStation 4. You can check out the Square Enix store site which has details on Limited Editions and more, here.

It“s a little after 4 AM on my side of the world. Tonight, I elected to spin my insomnia into productivity by watching this morning“s SCEJA Press Conference. The presentation went for two hours and covered games from both sides of the world on both major Sony platforms. There was about a half-an-hour dedicated to the PlayStation Vita that included announcements of new games like Luminous Arc Infinity and Disgaea 5, new system SKUs (so much pink!), release dates for games we knew about already like Phantasy Star Nova, and more. But rather than recapping the entire two-hour show (which included the Japanese debut of many trailers/games shown here in the United States at E3 2014): here“s everything new and noteworthy from the broadcast: First and FOREmost: Hot Shots Golf is headed to PlayStation 4. This new project will feature "open-world entertainment in the form of golf". No release window or title was given for the new project, but longtime fans of the series (who haven't played a Hot Shots Golf game on consoles since 2008) are likely glad to see it mentioned. Secondly, a brief trailer for Resident Evil Revelations 2 was shown, highlighting the game's visuals. Looks like rumors were true! It“s confirmed for Early 2015 in Japan. After that, Yakuza 0 was shown. There was a bunch of new information offered during the presentation, starting with the fact that the game takes place in 1988. It will also feature cross-play between the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. And then came the part of the night where the room fell silent and everyone watched in awe, then screamed with excitement. Persona 5 has been confirmed for PlayStation 4, as well as PS3 (we knew that part already). Feast your eyes on the trailer above, the first footage of the game since its announcement last year! God Eater 2: Rage Burst has been announced for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. Senran Kagura: Estival Versus has been announced for PlayStation 4. That“s the first time this franchise has appeared on a console! This is also the part where I should mention that the Tekken Team are working on an a Project Morpheus game for PlayStation 4 called Summer Lesson. A new Ys project is in the works for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, coming in 2015. The footage shown makes me think it“s going to use the party system like in Ys: Memories of Celceta. Oh, right. And then Square-Enix showed up at the very end of the presentation with a new Dragon Quest game. The footage looked absolutely incredible...and for a fleeting moment, I thought what we were looking at was Dragon Quest XI. But, in a unique twist--the new game is Dragon Quest Heroes, co-developed by the folks responsible for Dynasty Warriors. That“s right--Hyrule Warriors isn“t the only high-profile Musuo cross-over game on the block. Anyone reading this think there“s more where that came from? ...More importantly, does anyone think Dragon Quest Heroes will make its way to the West? That pretty much covers it for this morning“s heavy hitters. If you“d like to watch the entire presentation, I“ve embedded it below. There“s certainly more to see! I“ll keep my ear to the ground about most of the titles I“ve mentioned, especially with TGS looming ever closer on the horizon. http://youtu.be/5D-Wr_3-E5U