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Random JRPG News Thread

flyingjohn

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May 14, 2012
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Someone explain to me Dynasty / Samurai Warriors; I want to try and get into this series. Which are the good ones for the PS4? And could someone explain to me the differences between the normal games and the Empire games. Do they have some kind of empire sim gameplay, as the name might imply?

I will list the positives and negatives of the series but considering you are enjoying nioh and souls games combat you may be heavily disappointed:
The good:
-Coop is extremly fun.Balancing between killing thousand of enemies while saving your allies on the hardest difficulty is simply a great time.
-Battlefield managment negates the just "mash square to win" false critique.You may think killing the enemy soldiers is the point of the game but that is simply not the case.
Your job is to eliminate the most dangerous enemy officers while taking over bases to make sure your allies don't die and countering enemy events.
when you look at the map you aren't looking at the large amount of useless fodder you are wanting to kill but you looking for where your allies are in trouble and how to counter the ambush/reinforcements/event that happened a moment ago.Remember most of these games end when not you but your commander dies or the objective is lost.
On easy difficulty none of these things apply,but you don't need to go to nightmare,just stay on normal or hard.Not to mention killing thousands doesn't really give you anything as a reward.
-Plenty of content.These games main campaign usually lasts in the 15-20 hours range.And the side content is mostly a grind but still adds additional 20 hours min to the length.
-Large cast:These games usually have more then 30 characters and bearing the dreaded c curse(i will talk about this in the negatives) most characters have enough difference in the attack arc/movement stats to make them worth to play.(especially for pirate warriors)
-The music:

-finally a semi good story presentation.The older warriors games had a campy feel but the newer one have made actual effort into at least making it a solid story presentation.

Now the bad things:
-Combat is shallow.The c curse still remains in most of these games.What this means is that all combos are thrown into the same type with a different animation depending on the character(water vs fire aoe,sword uppercut vs spear uppercut etc).
c2/uppercut or guard break depending on game c3/aoe c4/uppercut with a different animation c5/aoe with a different animation and so on.
Dynasty warriors 8 introduced special ex attacks unique to each character and pirate warriors changed this formula slightly to give each character a unique style.
Samurai warriors introduced super speedy attacks and so on.
But they improved the combat form the old games so much it is almost not recognizable.
Considering this will probably be your play or not play criteria i will recommend watching combo videos of dynasty warriors 8/pirate warriors 3 considering these are the best full packages warriors games.
Pirate warriors:


Dynasty warriors 8:



If these videos look boring to you then there is no point in trying the series considering the combat is the meat of the game and you won't get any super new moves that change the gameplay in the videos.
-Ai.The ai is garbage and higher difficulty just changes their stats not their aggressiveness.The game uses some weird half realtime combat system for the peons.They will mostly just watch you and then hit you after a few seconds and then continue watching(even if you are surrounded).The officers actually put up a fight but they all behave the same so once you figure out one you figured them all out.
-Your allies ai is even worse.You will spend a large of time saving your useless allies (especially the commander).There used to eb a morale system tu buff/debuff them but now they are just get slightly better depending on when you complete specific objectives.
-Level design is shit.In the old games there were huge empty maps in which you could charge straight at the enemy commander and kill him.Now you follow a very predetermined path on small maps with linear pathways and small square basses scattered around.But the maps have better scripted events so at least there is that.
-I wanna be diablo syndrome.Each game has inventory and loot yet not a single one has nay meaningful loot.Most of them all are just stat upgrades without any additional abilities.In 8 they introduced weapon rock paper scissors but that just means you carry different affinity weapons and that is all.
-The grind is real.Every single warriors game has some form of ridiculous rng grinding if you want to max stats. In the old games it was based on breaking bases and hoping to get musou upgrades.In pirate warriors you get a chance to get coins which allow you to upgrade stats beyond ,just a chance not a guarantee.(except for specific story ones). This extends to the side mods which are just either smaller maps which you have to constantly grind to get coins/materials/exp to max stats.
I guess some people feel they are a nice diversions from the main game.
-repetitiveness .What you do from the first level you will do until the last level.There will be different events but the core gameplay remains the same.

Empires game are just warriors game combat with added strategy options.This is not romance of the three kingdoms rpg style,this is just you choosing battles and some strategical options and then using the same combat system as the base game in maps which are worse then the base games(smaller and nothing worthwhile actually happens in them). They did add stuff like marriages but they were an afterthought and just seem to be there for the fanfics.

So what is the core gameplay then?

You run around the map from objective a to b eliminating the biggest threat while killing a large amount of peons and making sure your allies are alive.
Think of them as action roguelikes,just play a couple of maps for a hour-two and the repetitiveness won't annoy you.

My personal recommendation is either pirate warriors 3 or dynasty warriors 8+ xtreme legends.
 
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Hobo Elf

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flyingjohn Thanks for the long and detailed answer. I think I'll give the series a try. Gonna get Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends and Samurai Warriors 4 since I want something Chinese-y and Japanese-y. I'm not into One Piece so I'll avoid that for now.
 

flyingjohn

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Messages
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flyingjohn Thanks for the long and detailed answer. I think I'll give the series a try. Gonna get Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends and Samurai Warriors 4 since I want something Chinese-y and Japanese-y. I'm not into One Piece so I'll avoid that for now.
If you are buying samurai warriors for the ps4 there are two versions of the game.The original and samurai warriors 4-2.
4-2 is the expanded versions with new characters and refined game play and i would recommend that over the original.
For dynasty warriors 8 the ps4 version is the complete version so no need to worry about versions for that one.
 

Reinhardt

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Sep 4, 2015
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31,941
I didn't played new games but still remember "lol, random Lu Bu is here to rape your ass" from before.
 

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Arcane
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Oct 5, 2012
Messages
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Codex 2014
Square Enix found a new RPG studio called Studio Istolia, and announced a new RPG Project Prelude Rune: http://www.rpgsite.net/news/5326-sq...udio-istolia-for-new-rpg-project-prelude-rune

The studio is headed by former Tales of... series producer Hideo Baba.

Square Enix Group, an integrated entertainment company, announced today “Project Prelude Rune”, a new role playing game project, developed by STUDIO ISTOLIA CO., LTD. , a newly established studio in Tokyo.

STUDIO ISTOLIA further builds on Square Enix Group’s vision to create new intellectual properties alongside existing Square Enix studios. Hideo Baba who has over 18 years of experience in game development will serve as the studio head.

Hideo Baba is working as the producer of “Project Prelude Rune” as well. The project aims to build a new RPG with a new fantasy: unfolding across a vast land teeming with life. Nurtured by the earth, the many peoples of this land dare to dream, fighting for what is just—and this is their tale.

Further details on “Project Prelude Rune” will be revealed at a later time.

The name ISTOLIA originates from the Greek word, ”story” and is central to the studio’s primary value. The aim of the studio is to provide unforgettable stories that will inspire players in their own lives, and bring new game experiences to everyone around the world.

For the latest studio news, please visit: http://www.studioistolia.com

Job listing refers it an action RPG, not surprisingly.
 

vortex

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http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...ole-playing-ip-project-prelude-rune-announced

Square Enix has announced a new role-playing IP codenamed Project Prelude Rune. It's the first game by new Japanese team Studio Istolia, where Hideo Baba, who was producer of the Tales series of games for Namco Bandai, is in charge.

What little information there is on Project Prelude Rune comes from a Google translation of a new Studio Istolia website via Kotaku. Concept art shows a fantasy world of dragons and nature, so what looks to be a classic, magical tale. An extra piece of art from a press release, shared on Japanese site Gamer, shows a sketch of a typical battle. There are lots of wings.
Concept

jpg

jpg
 

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Arcane
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Codex 2014
NIS' president interviewed by 4Gamer about Steam releases and other topics (Japanese): http://www.4gamer.net/games/353/G035361/20170217067/

Nothing particularly interesting:

- He thinks sales of Disgea and other re-releases on Steam are not bad but hopes for more growth.
- Initially they thought about giving Steam release rights to other publishers, but they decided to do it seriously. He considers Steam as a long-term investment to build up community and gain more fans (especially who don't own consoles) around the world.
- They would like to release all titles in Disgea series on Steam. [Well, obviously.]
- Also they'd like to release almost all new NIS titles on Steam. Some titles that specifically catering Japanese audience may not coming to West, but he wants to try (as they did it with Yomawari: Night Alone).
- Ultimately they want to release games simultaneously on all regions and all platforms.
- Sounds like they want to publish more of other Japanese developers' games on Steam.
- They also started publishing foreign indie games in Japan.

But give us Coven already.
 

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Arcane
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Messages
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Codex 2014
Ah, so this is only the first part of Steam re-release project: https://www.gamecity.ne.jp/shibusawa-kou/archives.html
  • Part 2 (January): Nobunaga's Ambition Zenkokuban, RotTK II, Genghis Khan
  • Part 3 (February): Nobunaga's Ambition II, RotTK III, Bandit Kings of Ancient China
  • Part 4 (March): Nobunaga's Ambition: Lord of Darkness, RotTK IV with PK, Ishin no Arashi
  • Part 5 (April): RottK V with PK, Taikou Risshiden, Uncharted Waters
  • ...and more.

Nobunaga's Ambition II, RotTK III, and Bandit Kings of Ancient China are out now: http://store.steampowered.com/bundle/2707/

Nobunaga's Ambition II and RotTK III are even more expensive than previous ones and still only available in Japanese.

---

In other news, Idea Factory will release their perverted card game Monster Monpiece on Steam next month:

ss_f3f0013c2c8dbecf17b52bcd837cda138d8d09f0.600x338.jpg




Key Features

• Play fast-paced card battles in 1080p where more than 100 monster girl cards can be summoned, each class coming to life as a 3D chibi model on a battle grid!
• Each card you play can mean victory or defeat – with Skills, Potentials, Fusions, and Aura Bonuses, you have layers of strategy to use in each battle.
• Level up your cards with the frenetic First ❤ Crush Rub system, rubbing your magical prowess into the monster girls to increase their strength and obtain new artwork for each!
 
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flyingjohn

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May 14, 2012
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3,193
- He thinks sales of Disgea and other re-releases on Steam are not bad but hopes for more growth.
What an idiot.So selling over a 100k copies for 14 year old overpriced(it should 5-10 bucks at best) is bad?
Not to mention the sequel is already breaking 20k which already puts it in the average sales of srpg,and this is before the steam sales begin.
Luckily disgaea ps3 games are working well on the ps3 emulator and could probably be playable by the end of the year.
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
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He said speciifically said not bad; I'm assuming he meant that he expects the later titles to do better, which would make sense. I'd be counted among people who'd play one of the later entries but wasn't interested in the first two since I beat them both already and moved away from consoles when the ps3 came out.

Agreed that they seriously overpriced the releases though. Maybe they're just cashing in on the diehard fans first and plan to do a huge sale once the later games are out too (or just before.)
 

Rahdulan

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Luckily disgaea ps3 games are working well on the ps3 emulator and could probably be playable by the end of the year.

Definitive versions of 3 and 4 are still those complete versions on Vita. Shame 5 never received the same treatment.
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
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Luckily disgaea ps3 games are working well on the ps3 emulator and could probably be playable by the end of the year.

Definitive versions of 3 and 4 are still those complete versions on Vita. Shame 5 never received the same treatment.
This is why I'm looking forward to these steam releases. They've been porting the handheld versions with extra content and UI improvements and such. The first game I played to death and is a little too basic (although still really complex tbh) for me to go back to after playing later entries, and I recall rather disliking the characters/plot in the second game, though I did finish that one as well. Third game is the first in the mainline series I didn't beat, so I'm looking forward to it. Might even do a bunch of the postgame content as well.
 

Hobo Elf

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- He thinks sales of Disgea and other re-releases on Steam are not bad but hopes for more growth.
What an idiot.So selling over a 100k copies for 14 year old overpriced(it should 5-10 bucks at best) is bad?
Not to mention the sequel is already breaking 20k which already puts it in the average sales of srpg,and this is before the steam sales begin.
Luckily disgaea ps3 games are working well on the ps3 emulator and could probably be playable by the end of the year.

Depends on what he was expecting. Realistically speaking, I'd wager that at least half of those sales are by people who were already into the series. So in terms of sales, it's not bad, but in terms of sales to a new audience, it may be a bit disappointing.

Edit:

Sorry if this has been posted before, but I just became aware of this game while browsing my trophy lists on my PS4 (yes, I was bored).

It's called God Wars: Future Past and is set for release for the PS4 and Vita in NA (March 28) and EU (March 31). It looks like a Disgaea-esque Tactical RPG based on a Japanese / Japanese-folklore setting.

system-battle-view-image-pc_eng.jpg


system-battle-boss-image-pc_eng.jpg


Looks quite good. They have a website with some info if you're interested. https://godwarsgame.com/
 
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Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
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Disgaea-esque
I'll believe it when I see the 100+ floor random dungeons and 10 different simultaneous character progression systems. Though I'll admit the impurity system and the boss having room for 3 different jobs looks promising on that front.

It just occured to me that the biggest draw of Disgaea (the crazy layered progression system) isn't readily obvious from things like screenshots, so I'm gonna explain it a bit a lot here. This is just from memory from the first game, later entries added even more stuff and kept pretty much all of these systems.

  • First off, you've got levels. Bog standard. Level goes up, stats go up. Learn new skills/spells based on class/race (class and race are kinda the same thing in disgaea).
  • Second, you've got weapon skills. These unlock new special attacks as they go up. Different classes have different levels of proficiency with different weapons. The main character, for example, is especially good with swords. But nothing stopping you from grabbing a staff instead to learn some magic. Weapon skills also multiply the stats gained from the corresponding equipment, which is important for a reason I'll get to later.
  • Third, you've got reincarnations. This one is complicated and spirals out into other systems. First off, it resets your stats to those of a level one character, along with your level. You some of your skill levels (explained later) but keep your Mana (also explained later, not the stuff used to cast spells) In return, you get the following benefits:
  1. Your base stats are raised according to the total levels you've 'spent' reincarnating. This improves the stat gains per level.
  2. You get bonus points to spend on your base stats that do the same thing, except these you can spend on whichever stats you want.
  3. You can change class. Classes spread out both horizontally and vertically; there are strictly better versions of most classes, unlocked by reaching a certain level as the previous tier. But there are also other kinds of requirements, like using each of the 3 elemental wizards to unlock the non-elemental one. These unlocks are shared between characters as well; you can level 3 different wizards then upgrade them all to the universal version, or change your whole team into them, etc. Better classes gain better spells, have better base stats, and better 'intangible' stats like movement, resistances, and other things that can't be improved by simply levelling up.
  • Fourth, you've got the mentor/student system. When making a new character, you select which character to spend 'mana' (an extra sort of XP reward that gets used for various things but isn't inherently useful like xp) to recruit them. The student can inherit some skills from the mentor, and the mentor can use the skills of the student at the lowest level as long as they're nearby. This is really useful because...
  • Spells/special attacks have levels too. By having access to them by being near a student, the mentor can learn the skill themselves permanently. Higher level skills do more damage, cost more, and maybe get more AoE or range, I forget that part.
  • Hell Senate. This is a place where characters can spend mana. There are a huge variety of benefits here, but the simplest ones are recruiting new characters or improving existing ones. The improves gained here are for things like movement or counter attacking ability, things that don't increase with level. Other things to spend mana on include reincarnation (better classes cost more mana, whether recruiting or reincarnating) which incidentally, has a variety of qualities. Better reincarnation keeps more of your skills and adds more base stats, but is more expensive. You can also unlock major world changing effects here, like increasing or decreasing the levels of all your enemies, granting huge xp or mana bonuses to your next trip into the item world, unlocking new dungeons, etc.
  • Item world. Jesus christ this list goes on forever. Items (any fucking item, even consumables) can be levelled up by entering the randomly generated dungeon inside them and progressing through floors. This is really complicated too. The simplest bonus is from simply reaching a deep floor. However, there are guardians every so many floors, with more powerful guardians placed less frequently. They give major bonuses. You can also encounter 'innocents' within these dungeons. These are visible on the item itself before you enter, and are basically pseudo npcs that live within the item and boost it's stats. Finding and defeating them within the dungeon (before an enemy does; they're neutral) will both increase their level, adding more stats, and unlock them from the item, allowing you to move them to other items or merge them with other npcs of the same class. Merging them with a 'locked' innocent will create a new locked innocent that is the average of their two levels, which you can then double by taming them again. By doing this you can make any item at all have tremendous stats of nearly any kind. You can stuff them all into an accessory that anyone can use and use it to make a low level fresh recruit into a beast that can casually one shot things 50 levels higher. Or you can make specialized items so different characters can max out specific stats like evasion or accuracy or hp. Remember the weapon skill/proficiency thing though? That ties in too. You can put them into a weapon of the right kind and the character will get far more stats than they would from an accessory or another character with no weapon skill. The item world itself is also a great source of loot and experience and so forth, because it scales pretty much endlessly, granting new items with stronger worlds. The thing is, you can't make a permanent save inside the item world, so you have to make the judgement call of when to leave, or you might lose your whole run. There are items that let you leave relatively easily, but they're not completely trivial to acquire, so there is some incentive to avoid using them and go on longer trips instead of leaving after every floor to be safe. You can return to the floor where you left off.

There's even more stuff, but those are the most important bits I'd say, and it gives you a good idea of what the game is all about and why it's so different from something like FFT or tactics ogre or any of the other games that look superficially similar to the NIS games but don't have the stigma of being 'grindy' (though I did WAY more monotonous grinding in FFT to learn various job skills, just punching my own dudes. That shit doesn't pay off in disgaea.)
 

Abu Antar

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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
JAPAN ONLY for now
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is coming to PS4 with less jaggies, better lighting and crap like that.
I never beat it, but it did have a decent combat system. I'm not even interested but I though someone might be and I think it is likely that the west will get this.
 

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Codex 2014
Dragon Quest Heroes II is coming to Steam and PS4 on April 25 (EU: April 28th).

I heard this is better than the first one.

 

Abu Antar

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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Dragon Quest Heroes II is coming to Steam and PS4 on April 25 (EU: April 28th).

I heard this is better than the first one.


There is supposed to be less tower defense like sections and it's supposed to be more of an open world.
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
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I actually quite liked the first one, I still want to go back and try to kill the postgame bosses some day, they were fucking brutal. Characters and most importantly enemies felt a lot more varied than your usual musou fare. Enemies that do things like cast silence or suicide bomb themselves make for much better gameplay than just mashing through waves of dudes with weapons that don't hurt. Not that there weren't decent moments playing dynasty warriors too; but the encounter with a decent general with aggressive bodyguards you had to purposefully take out was a rare one. Usually I'd just grab an attack x2 power up and kill the boss before he could fight back, and juggling in that game was way too easy. Juggling godzilla monsters doesn't work so well.
 

Rahdulan

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JAPAN ONLY for now
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is coming to PS4 with less jaggies, better lighting and crap like that.
I never beat it, but it did have a decent combat system. I'm not even interested but I though someone might be and I think it is likely that the west will get this.

Interesting, but what that game needs is a fundamental facelift. No amount of lighting and AA will make this look any better.

star_ocean_till_the_end_of_time_hd_party_692x389.jpg


Decent soundtrack when it tries, though.

 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
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Yeah it's really not. Disgaea has some good writing, but it's all in the item descriptions in the form of jokes and such. The plot is just kind of random crazyness. You fight power ranger knockoffs and recruit ditzy angel assassins into the war between heaven and hell and then have to fight a moviestar or a 4th wall breaking minor character upset he's not a real boss.

The combat also has some cool puzzle aspects to it with the geo blocks, though I honestly liked that system in La Pucelle a lot more than any of the disgaea iterations. And Makai Kingdom did away with it entirely, leaving the combat focused around really crazy chain throwing/summoning/spawning shenanigans with vehicles and deployable fortresses and stuff to cross multiple battlefields and kill the boss with some massive combo before any enemies even get a turn. Which was pretty cool in it's own right.

If you're playing disgaea the way you'd play FFT or the like, you're doing it terribly wrong. You should either be one shotting entire armies with a single character or gangbanging a boss with a combo of a dozen characters so elaborate it took more time to plan than it did to play through the entire previous battle. It's a game about manipulating systems that feed back into eachother more than anything.
 

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Arcane
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Codex 2014


Some hints even more teasing from Ghostlight PR guy:

- "If anyone was wondering the new JRPG PC port is based on a PS3 version, but there are other versions out there."
- "It does have a western release."
- "Hope it will be in the next blog, but it needs to pass through approval in Japan first :)"
- "Have I ever mentioned how much I enjoy having new games to tease? :)"

:argh:

Well, any guess?
 

Siveon

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Probably Cross Edge. Fits all the criteria: Has a 360 version as well as PS3, not that good (Idea Factory), has a western release.
 

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