Falcom has some special items available for its fans now. With Ys Celceta on the horizon (in stores 9/27), the game's special box has been announced. Here's what's on hand.

While they're fairly standard items to include these days, the dramatic CD and soundtrack are always a welcome addition for fans. The soundtrack is a 25th anniversary edition that includes tracks from all over the series' history. If I'm reading this right, it even includes five tracks from the Sony MSX version of the original Ys. That's about as old school as you can get for RPGs in the gaming industry. The third item is a cleaning cloth map of the game's world. Finally, there's the Ys Heroines 2012 Calendar, which features nineteen of the most popular ladies in Falcom's history.

If you have a Vita and don't mind the Japanese, you can order the whole thing here for 8925 yen (about USD 113.50).

Two weeks ago I posted a video for Unchain Blades: Exxiv, but I forgot to post any of the screenshots I found that week. Oops. Let's fix that now.

Along with the screenshots, we have some nice tapestries to look at. These would look splendid on any otaku's wall, I suppose.

Unchain Blades: Exxiv is due out in mid-November.

This past Tuesday, Square Enix finally released Emperor's SaGa for GREE. Huzzah. It turned out to be yet another card-based affaire. Boo. SE promises a deep story, interesting gameplay, and shout-outs to other games in the series, but as I don't have a smartphone there's no way I can confirm this personally. Interestingly enough, it seems that the traditional combat system for the series has survived the transition. At least, this screenshot shows that the Glimmer system is still in use.

It's just not the same, though...

So far we've met a ridiculous number of heroes and sorta-heroes connected to Project X Zone, the 3DS crossover title that is a spiritual sequel to Namco X Capcom. It's about time we met some villains.

These three are original characters, and probably either the primary villains or the regularly occuring goof squad for the game. From left to right we have Ein Belanos, Dué Frabelm, and Trei Belanos. The two big uglies are brothers, but the lady is only related to them in that she also has a numeric name scheme. They work for a mysterious organization called Ouros-Blocks.

To make things interesting, a few more villains and antagonists have appeared from various contributor games.

First, there's the most famous Satanic Aussie zombie deathmetal demigod ever, Zabel (a.k.a. Lord Raptor). According to the backstory in the Darkstalkers games, this guy arranged two whole albums to closely follow the instructions and incantations found within a tome of dark sorcery. In his grand finale, he successfully sacrificed himself (as well as a hundred screaming fans) in a blaze of hellish glory that culminated in his death and rise to unlife. Here, he seems to be reprising his villainous role from Namco X Capcom.

A rogue Maverick Hunter turned Maverick himself, Vile is a recurring villain in the Mega Man X series. Rarely seen without his heavy armor, Vile is a heavy hitter thanks to the vast arsenal he is constantly carrying around.

From Valkyria Chronicle, we have the Valkyrie herself. I don't know much about Selvaria, except that she can be extremely dangerous with the right weapon in hand. Amusingly, one of PXZ's heroines is actually called Valkyrie, and doesn't seem to take kindly to Selvaria's use of the word for herself.

And finally, from Sakura Taisen 3 we get Ciseaux, a bizarre, rabbit-themed supervillain in a lepine battle mech. Every game needs a gag villain, right?

Project X Zone is still set to come out mid-October. Presumably there will be several more updates to the villains list before then.