It's unfortunate that we were given such a short time with Hiroyuki Kobayashi, but given his popularity, we weren't too surprised. Many of you know him as a producer of various series including Resident Evil and Devil May Cry 4 -- however, this time we sat down to discuss his upcoming title Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes, which hits Japanese shelves tomorrow.  

With a date just months away, Capcom is gearing up for the first North American release -- or at least, the first proper release -- of the Sengoku Basara series. While gamers were previously treated to a heavily edited localization, which actually resulted in an almost entirely different game, this latest sequel will instead remain mostly intact. Just how intact? You'll have to read to find out.

For those of you, like myself, who worship the art of Shunya Yamashita, your newest testament is here. That's right, Kotobukiya has finally published Shunya Yamashita's latest art book, One Voice. The third to date, One Voice features some of his more recent work, including what I believe to be several of his illustrations from the Marvel and DC Bishoujo line that Kotobukiya has been releasing as of late -- though, licensing issues may have prevented this, I'll have to wait and see.

Unfortunately, the book won't be released in the US, despite Kotobukiya having actually gone through all the trouble of translating the book for an English audience. I actually confirmed this, and the reason cited was again, licensing issues. My "spider-sense" tells me Marvel, again, may have been involved, but again, that's just conjecture on my part. Still, those of you who want to pick up a copy can order one through J-List here.

I was all over the place today, but thankfully I had a chance to drop by the Bandai Visual panel. I had heard that they had planned several announcements, though I had wondered why they decided to make those announcements here when they could have waited until Otakon. It surprised me even more when I realized they had no booth space -- or at least, no official booth space.

A lot of the announcements, and trailers were same as what was shown at Fanime and Anime Expo, including the K-On! introduction. There's no news about the series yet, but Robert Napton, their marketing director, did mention that they might be able to reveal some details at Otakon. We'll just have to wait and see.

Of course, there were the three major announcements for the night, the Kannagi manga -- which was actually kind of expected -- Turn A Gundam, and Tales of the Abyss. Not surprisingly, I'd say Turn A Gundam probably got the biggest response. Again, I'm sure in depth details regarding the releases will probably happen next month.

It did strike me as odd that Funimation had a fairly large booth space in comparison to Bandai's lack thereof, despite the fact that they weren't making any new announcements this evening, but I guess if Bandai wanted to cut costs, not having a booth at a comic convention was probably a smart move.

So, for those of you who might not really know how it works, "Preview Night," or day zero as I'd like to call it, was basically three hours of us getting to wade through crowds of con-goers in order to see pretty much the same stuff we'll be seeing for the next three days.

Why? I'm not really sure, but I imagine it has something to do with those of us who never get to attend these events, or those of us who have a load of cash burning a hole in our pockets. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty to actually buy, assuming you're there to shop, but rather than blow our loads on figures and art books the first night, we preferred to just take a quick look around -- and ride a sweet Dead Rising 2 motorcycle. Check out the video above to see what I mean.

It would seem that Seven Seas has finally picked up the license for the Toradora! manga -- having announced the title in the form of an anagram on their twitter feed. Why an anagram? Good question -- at least this one was easy. I mean, seriously, "Toad Roar?" They could have tried a little harder.

The feed also indicated that they won't be having a booth at SDCC, so I suppose that could explain the reasoning behind the cryptic announcements, but wouldn't it just make life easier on all of us if they just came out and said it? Any way, if you like to play guessing games, keep an eye on their twitter feed as they're prepping to announce two more titles this weekend.

Until then, just be happy that there'll be an awesome manga to go along with your recently purchased copy of the anime -- and if you haven't, bought Toradora! yet, what the hell is wrong with you? The extras alone make it worth your while.

Another game announced at the NIS America press event the other day was Z.H.P. -- an acronym for Zettai Hero Project. Those of you who love the quirky humor and strategy-based gameplay of Disgaea will absolutely love this game. Though we weren't given a playable demo, the trailer that debuted at the event did a wonderful job of filling us in on the basic premise of the game, as well as showed off a good portion of the games mechanics.

The level of customization seems rather unprecedented, at least for a SRPG. Z.H.P. allows us to customer our character from head to toe, with all kinds of items such as drill arms -- that much makes this game worth buying alone -- Prinny hats, tank legs, you name it. You even get to customize your own city which doubles as a secret-base.

The battle maps are randomly generated, which I'm sure adds to the re-playability -- but you're probably going to end up playing the game to death any way as you actually get stronger from dying. Crazy, right? Well, it sounds like a good idea to me, at least. 

Finally, I managed to officially confirm that the characters from the light novel Dengeki Bunko, as well as several anime related crossover character will be present in the US version of this game. While I don't have any word on potential DLC, I confirmed through Nippon Ichi that the US version will receive the same content Japan is getting, should any be released. The game is currently scheduled for release sometime this Winter.

Check out the trailer, along with additional some info regarding Disgaea 4 after the jump!

Yesterday, NIS America showed off a whole host of upcoming games at their annual press event. While I know some of you guys might have been a bit sad that they didn't have any new anime franchises to announce, or were expecting some news on Nippon Ichi's upcoming Prinny sequel, the games that were shown looked fantastic.

Cladun: This is an RPG, or simply Classic Dungeon as it was called in Japan, easily surprised me the most. While some other games like 3D Dot Game Heroes try too hard to emulate the classic action-based RPGs like Legend of Zelda, and Secret of Mana, it really failed to evoke the sense of nostalgia that I get from playing those classic games.

Cladun, on the other hand, actually did more in terms of evoking that nostalgia than any other retro-esque title I've played in recent years. The visuals seemed spot on, the music was absolutely wonderful, and the gameplay certainly felt just right. Couple that with the host of features that the title boasts, such as randomly generated dungeons, ad-hoc multiplayer, and insane levels of customization, and I'm pretty much sold on wanting to buy it.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to experience any of the multiplayer facets of the game in the short amount of time I had with it. Still, I'm quite excited to see how the game shapes up when it's finally released for the PSP, exclusively via PSN, later this fall.

Check out the trailer after the break.

If you can believe it, NISa surprised us with not just one, but three announcements last evening. In addition to the Gust/Namco Bandai venture Ar tonelico Qoga -- Ar tonelico 3 as it's known overseas -- they'll be also be bringing both Zettai Hero Project, and Classic Dungeon to our shores.

Let's start with Ar Tonelico Qoga, aka Ar Tonelico 3. It hit the PS3 back in January overseas and we've been hoping to see this latest chapter localized. The game features some marked improvements over the previous entry into the series, such as a brand new action-based battle system, complete with rhythm/music based casting.

Strangely, the human females in the game seem to get more powerful when they strip their clothes off. I'm not sure why, but if you ask me, that's excellent game design. Did I mention the game includes a dating sim? Well, from what I saw, it gets pretty kinky.

Any way, expect some more updates later today and until then, we have a special message from Souhei Niikawa, President of Nippon Ichi after the break.