Gamertell

Two sleeper hits from Konami and Atlus are coming to grace the US market this year with confirmed dates. Konami’s Time Hollow is slated for a late Summer 2008 release while Atlus’s Persona 4 is scheduled to appear on store shelves early December 2008.

Time Hollow
Coming August 26, 2008, Konami will be releasing their touch screen anime adventure game known as Time Hollow. Time Hollow focuses around 17-year old Ethan Kairos (Horou Tokio in the JP version) and his search for his mysteriously missing parents. During his investigation, he happens upon a special pen known as the “Hollow Pen” which endows him with the unique ability to open portals to the past. With this special pen, Ethan must alter past events in order to solve problems in the present, ultimately leading him to the whereabouts of his parents. With the use of the DS’s stylus, a player must circle different parts of various environments in order to create holes in time which are key to unraveling the mystery.

Time Hollow’s production and creation is of no small matter either. This game was created by Junko Kawano of Suikoden fame with Takehito Hata, an acclaimed novel and screenwriter. To progress Time Hollow’s storyline, key sequences are fully animated with voice and were designed by AIC, the producers of Blood+ and Gun X Sword.

Persona 4
Come December 2008, every cult gamer’s Christmas list should include Atlus’s latest installment in the Shin Megami Tensei family, Persona 4. Scheduled for a December 9, 2008 release date, it’s currently priced at a mere $39.99 and is going to be released on the Playstation 2 (yes, there’s life in the old bones of this console still).

Persona 4 shirks the ultra-modern decor of Persona 3 for the apparently quiet country side and rural town of Yasoinaba (re-named “Inaba” for the US). The main character is once again a nameless and silent 17 year old high school student whose destiny is in the hands of the player. This game runs very similarly to Persona 3’s gameplay mechanics (incl. Social Link, One More and All-out Attacks) with two major differences. First, instead of keeping a vigil on the phases of the moon, players will need to pay attention to changes in the weather. For example, a rainy day might find you in a heap of monsters, where a sunny day finds you a nice time to relax and increase social links. Secondly, players are now able to control other characters in battle instead of assigning them broad roles which sometimes hindered success more often than not.

Read [Gaygamer] Also Read [Gamasutra] Site [Time Hollow] Site [Persona 4]

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