Quantcast

This Week In Imports: That Studio Ghibli Game

By Spencer . December 6, 2010 . 1:48pm

This Week In Imports: That Studio Ghibli Game

Level-5′s hotly anticipated Studio Ghibli project comes out this week. Ni no Kuni: The Jet Black Sorcerer dodged the Monster Hunter Portable 3rd rush, but it faces Donkey Kong Country Returns and Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood in the sales charts.

 

Those and a Mister Donut game for the Nintendo DS. Really! There’s a game based on the donut shop chain coming out too.

 

Nintendo DS
A Ressha de Ikou DS: Navigation Pack
Bakugan Battle Brawlers DS: Defenders of the Core
Mister Donut DS
Mystery Dungeon Shiren the Wanderer 5: Fortune Tower and the Dice of Fate
Ni no Kuni: The Jet Black Sorcerer
Uchi no 3 Shimai no Karaoke Utagassen

 

PSP
Boku wa Koukuu Kanseikan: Airport Hero Kankuu
Pastel Chime Continue

 

PlayStation 3
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Ape Escape On the Move
Furi! Furi! Bowling
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
TV Superstars

 

Xbox 360
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Kinect Animals
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Your Shape: Fitness Evolved

 

Wii
Donkey Kong Returns
Fitness Party
Karaoke Joysound Wii Super DX
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

 

PlayStation 2
Armen Noir

 

Key European Releases
Air Traffic Controller (DS)
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (DS)
Kung-Fu Live (PSN)

 

Key Domestic Releases
Fluidity (WiiWare)
Kung-Fu Live (PSN)
The Flying Hamster (PSN)
Tron Evolution (DS, PSP, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii)
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s: Duel Transer


Read more stories about on Siliconera.

  • malek86

    Wasn’t Shining Hearts supposed to come out this week?

    Lots of competition too. Last week was bad because of MHP3, but this is no easy week either. Maybe they should have moved to next week.

    As for me, I’ll wait for my Shiren 5 to arrive.

    • http://thrust-the-sky.deviantart.com/ WildArms

      Arggh i hope shining hearts do greatly, so SEGA can consider bringing it

      • OneOkami

        Shining Force Feather’s lack of a localization doesn’t give me too much hope in that happening.

        • http://thrust-the-sky.deviantart.com/ WildArms

          Who knows? even the developer himself was surprised by the number of preorders shining hearts have =P, and that was for DS, i liked the characters but it seems the gameplay was kinda dull.
          Not that i mind though, i really liked the design

    • M’iau M’iaut

      http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/4wFFxL=4vxtR2lnKgN/browse/item/90633/4/0/0

      Speaking of Tony T, looks like someone’s being nice and giving us one of his Shining artbooks.

  • OneOkami

    +1 for Ni no Kuni sales right here. My most anticipated DS game since Strange Journey.

    • PurpleDoom

      Hopefully it turns out just as good; Strange Journey is my personal Game of the Year.

  • http://thrust-the-sky.deviantart.com/ WildArms

    It would be pretty funny that Ni no Kuni actually sucks… nah, cant happen… or can it!?
    I mean, im 100% sure that, at least, 70% of the sales (or more) will be thanks to Ghilbi Studios

    • Aoshi00

      I ordered it and hope that it doesn’t suck, it’s 70 bucks man.. I know at least one thing from Ghibli would suck, the voice acting :(..

      • http://thrust-the-sky.deviantart.com/ WildArms

        Yeah lol, i dont really hope it sucks, i just though it would be funny, we all expecting great stuff, but we all are more excited because of the fact that ghilbi studio is here xD. But im sure LEVEL-5 did a good job, its a really rare chance they got with the studios.I just hope the story is entertaining, thats all i expect, because the gameplay looks ok pokemon realtime rpg style. And hell, i love that.If you can, in any comment i make anywhere, reply me what you think of the game :), you getting DS version i assume?

        • Aoshi00

          I hope it has a good story too, that’s pretty much all I’m hoping since the gameplay looks fairly standard turn-based RPG (which I like too, but I thought Wizard of Oz was a bore w/ a very weak narrative). I’m actually not that big a fan of Ghibli (seems to be a main reason most people are excited about this game), I like the music and animation but don’t like the voice acting, they refuse to use voice actors for some strange reason and use these famous actors who haven’t much experience in voice acting (Oliver just doesn’t sound that great), that’s a very big minus for me, it takes me out of the story..Sure, I’ll let you know later but others might get their copies sooner (I got mine from AmiAmi w/ the cheapest shipping, I just got Muchi Muchi Pork from them too). Yep, getting the DS version for the big spell book, I’m actually not that interested in the PS3 ver.

          • epy

            I have the exact same opinion on Ghibli films’ voice acting. I was watching Mimi wo Sumaseba the other day, and felt that, even when the movie is absolutely marvelous, the voice acting was subpar. I think the only Ghibli movie where I liked the voice acting off the top of my head was Porco Rosso… but that had Ohtsuka Akio so that alone makes it awesome.

          • M’iau M’iaut

            Thought Ghibli followed much the same formula as Disney with recognizable actors/new faces/flavors of the moment for major parts and traditional anime VAs for support? It is worth noting live action actors are not always used to the only tool they have in the performance being voice.

          • Aoshi00

            @M’iau M’iaut And that’s horrible.. like Lost Odyssey Sakaguchi used actors as well so the Jpn dub wasn’t that great, the whole cast sounded flat other than Jansen who sounded funny voiced by a comedian. I’m glad he uses voice actors for Last Story this time.

            The difference is US actors work in Pixar movies because their lines are pre-recorded and the animation is made to look like the actors’ performance, enhancing their acting and they are not restricted by the animation, so they sound very lively and appropriate while the actors in Ghibli sound lifeless and clearly lack the skill to emote with voice only.

            I still prefer rewatching Nausicaa (Shimamoto Sumi), Laputa (Tanaka Mayumi as Pazu), Totoro (Hidaka Noriko as Satsuki), KiKi’s delivery express (Tanaka Minami as KiKi), or I Can Hear the Sea (both male protagonists were voiced by seiyuu, Tobita Nobuo & Seki Toshihiko) than the later works which mostly used actors and only use VAs for bit parts as you said. For Mononoke Hime, Spirits Within, Howl’s Moving Castle (they have an old woman voice both young and old Sofi so even young Sofi sounded like an older woman), Ponyo, their voice acting were all pretty bad and that’s what I remember every time I watched them, “those actors can’t act, why doesn’t Ghibli use real VAs” and distract me from enjoying the story a great deal.. I don’t think performance should be sacrificed in the name of having some famous actors on board. Level 5 does that too w/ Prof Layton, but Ooizumi Yoh is pretty good as Layton, the others not so great. But for Inazuma Eleven it was all VAs because of the anime tie-in.

          • Aoshi00

            Also unlike Martin Sheen (in Mass Effect 2) or Sir Patrick Stewart (Castlevania LotS), they’re not just big names, these guys are great actors and know how to voice act, benefiting the game instead of dragging it down, not some popular actors who can’t voice act (I could imagine in the Ghibli recording studio the actors doing multiple takes and none of them are satisfying but they take what they can). It’s pretty cool to compare Martin Sheen’s voice in Mass Effect 2 to his younger self in the movie Apocalypse Now where he did quite a bit of narration..

          • M’iau M’iaut

            And if you look at US Ghibli dubs, the best received name actors — Michael Keaton, Tim Daly, Cary Elwes all have extensive US cartoon, commercial voice over or video game work in their careers. Patrick Stewart is always mentioned in such discussions too, that’s the stage training kicking in!

          • Aoshi00

            Yep, that’s the big difference, even though famous actors are used in Pixar or other CG animated movies, they are actually of high caliber and can do a great job and have experience in voice acting, unlike the Jpn actors (some of the chars in the Jpn Prof Layton sound so horrible like they’re flatly reading lines, especially the villains). I was surprised to find out Michael Keaton was Ken (the barbie one) in Toy Story 3, he was hilarious :) I love Cary Elwes, I just ordered Princess Bride on blu-ray again. So I just have one request for Ghibli, stop using actors who suck at voice acting.. do they think no one would go to the theaters to watch their movies w/o using big name actors?

      • puchinri

        The voice acting for the English or Japanese voices? I actually think both are good (well, Spirited Away and Howl’s was in English, everything is good in Japanese…).

        How long until you get it? I’m anxious to hear the details on it. >u<
        (I didn't know it was coming out so soon, or I would have saved my money for it.)

        • Aoshi00

          I’ve seen most in Jpn maybe a bit in Eng. I think Eng dub for the Ghibli films is better in general since the Jpn dub is pretty subpar unfortunately.. I didn’t like the girl who voiced Chihiro, although the kid who voiced Haku (Irino Miyu) did go on to become a VA (he’s Sena in Eyeshield 21), I mean he was pretty good as Haku then. San and Ashitaka sounded pretty amateur in the Jpn Mononoke Hime dub (Billy Crudup/Dr Manhattan was better)… Kimura Takuya was alright as Howl, I haven’t listened to Christian Bale’s Eng dub that much (I only own the Jpn DVD which didn’t have Eng dub..), Sofi sounded bad because both the young and old ver were voiced by an older woman (in Eng she was by 2 different actors).. Ponyo’s Jpn dub was pretty bad too, Yamaguchi Tomoko was pretty bad as Lisa, I loved her as an actress but she can’t voice act, Sousuke sounded amateurish too. In general the Jpn actors used in Ghilbi films over the last decade just weren’t very skillful in voice acting, they were just picked to boost the film’s exposure so it has some big names tagged on, which I find unfortunate, that’s why I don’t like Ghibli. Just watch “I Can Hear the Sea” (Umi ga Kikoeru) using experienced voice actors, what a difference… made it a much more memorable story..

          I just ordered from Amiami, they should ship it a day or 2 after release day, but I picked the slowest SAL shipping, so I might not get it in a while, I’ll give my input once I get the change to try it. I just know I would hate Oliver’s voice though from listening to the trailers (just fake crying *.*..)

    • http://tristsantithesis.tumblr.com/ Tsunayoshi Sawada

      I have found that any game that supra excites me in visuals alone ends up never being a game that actually sucks, therefore, this game will be perhaps one of the most definitive games offered on the Nintendo DS to date.

  • joesz

    Man I can’t wait for ni no kuni.. I’m going to have it next week hopefully.

  • http://tristsantithesis.tumblr.com/ Tsunayoshi Sawada

    Well I think this seals the fact that this awesome year of definitive videogames has come to an end domestically.

    How nice that Nintendo and Sony closed off the year with a bang with the GT5, DKCR, and GS:DD on the homefront.

    2011 can come on in now.

  • lostinblue

    out of sheer curiosity… I don’t see Ni no Kuni PS3 listed, when is it due?

  • HarryHodd

    Curios to hear impressions.

  • Exkaiser

    Oh, hey, I didn’t know Shiren 5 was due out already.

  • puchinri

    Wow, that was fast. I didn’t think Ni no Kuni would be out already. When is the PS3 ver. coming out?

    I’m kind of tempted to import.

    • http://tristsantithesis.tumblr.com/ Tsunayoshi Sawada

      Searing in the search box provided on this site brought up an article that said the PS3 version is listed for 2011

      • puchinri

        Ahh. Not even a month though, huh? Well, I would hope and suspect Q2. I wish it was Q1… (But too late for that now. Most likely.)

Video game stories from other sites on the web. These links leave Siliconera.

Popular