This is basically a twist on the standard action-RPG genre. Think of Diablo or Champions of Norath, but instead of collecting armor and potions and fighting with swords and spells, you fight with “folk” which are basically captured spirits. Along the way, you have to acheive various goals to upgrade your folk and gain new powers.

The artwork and animation on this game are truely beautiful. Technically it looks great, but it’s most impressive at a stylistic level. The characters, creatures, and environments are very diverse and evocative.

I don’t know how well this will extend to a full length game. But so far, this looks like a great twist on the standard action RPG formula with some hyper-stylized visuals and atmosphere to go with it. The demo is also a good length; it’s much longer than something like the Heavenly Sword demo, so you actually can really get a chance to see what the game is about.

Action RPG titles are usually too repetitive for my tastes. All games are built around some repetitive element, but for some reason, the repetition in something like Diablo is simply too blunt for me to enjoy. However, sometimes when I’m really stressed out, I want to relax with something like this, and if I do go to pick an action RPG title, it will definitely be this one.

This only includes US + Japan data since that is all that I could easily get a hold of. US Data from NPD. Japan Data from Media Create weekly data from 7/2-7/29

Although, I can’t find anywhere to obtain hard Europe numbers, Sony exec David Reeves, made the following commment regarding Europe sales:

“This is not the US. [Europe’s] quite different from the US in terms of market shares.” said Reeves. “…PS3 outsells Xbox 360 about 3 to 1. PS2 outsells Xbox 360 by 4 to 1….”

Admittedly, this was a strong PS3 month with an amazing E3 show and a much needed price drop and a weak 360 month, where talk of hardware failures was at an all time high and rumored price cuts were on the way. Game releases for both systems were rather light. However, we’ll take whatever good news we can get. And as always, PS2/PSP are healthily ahead of both PS3/360 and Nintendo’s DS and Wii have a huge lead over everything else.

PlayTV is a twin TV tuner that will launch early 08 in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain, no word on the rest of the world. The video is stored on the PS3 and you can stream the media to a PSP or download it directly via USB. You can even steam live TV to your PSP while recording another show.

No price details yet for the hardware, but there won’t be a monthly fee. “A seven-day TV guide and a button that sets it to record an entire series” I would love to get this. Wonder if this will ever arrive in North America …

PlayStation to record digital TV & Sony’s DVR peripheral for PS3 rumored details- PlayTV & Live Feed