It's the Emperor's birthday this week, so that means the magazine publishing schedule has been shifted over by the usual one day. And that, of course, means all the magazine leaks will be happening early this week, starting now!

The information you read here is taken off Japanese message boards and blogs. While it's usually accurate, we in general haven't seen the source material for ourselves.

Check back throughout the day for updates!

CORRECTIONS:

Regarding Dissidia's new characters, Tetsuya Nomura said in a Famtisu interivew that the remaining new characters will come from the Super NES and up. This does not necessarily mean that Super NES characters will be included.

The proper English romanization of 5pb.'s new science-themed adventure game is "Robotics:notes," and not the "Roboticsnauts" that was previously listed

ADDED 18:13

More Dissidia Duodecim Final Fantsy Details

Famitsu has first details on the special Duodecim PSP system this week. The system's top will be pearl white with an illustration from Yoshitaka Amano. The back will be matte black.

As reported earlier (see below) Tetsuya Nomura reveals in the magazine that the original's story will be included with Duodecim. It's apparently being remade to go along with the new 3D map-based story mode. Together, the original's story and Duodecim's story will take about 60 hours to clear.

More on 5pb.'s New Adventure Game

This is about Roboticsnauts, 5pb.'s science themed adventure game, not the Hideo Kojima and Suda 51 tie-up project that's also mentioned in Famitsu this week.

The game's theme is "robot." The setting is Tanegashima, an island down in Kyushu. This island is home to Japan's space agency, JAXA, and it seems that 5pb. is working with JAXA on the game.

You play as someone who's apparently into fighting games. The story begins when you discover that one of the game's heroines is a genius programmer who developed a world famous fighting game.

Roboticsnauts (this probably isn't the actual Romanization of the name) appears to be pretty early in development. The plot has just been completed, and they're currently considering a character designer.

ADDED 16:28

Tales of Xillia Detailed

Famitsu has a big feature this week on Tales of Xillia. The big surprise: the game will switch the perspective from the overhead view of past titles to a behind-the-back view.

Jump Festa didn't have any details on Xillia, but Famitsu makes up for it this week!

This seems like it could be part of a greater attempt at reality, as even the buildings and other objects in town are full sized, giving a great sense of scale as you explore.

The magazine has screenshots showing the game's fields, which are said to have some elements that will get adventurers excited. Quick load times are one area of focus.

The magazine lists five key words for the game:

• Liese Maxia: The name of the game world. The world has spirits, but people cannot see them until they have been converted into solid form.
• Spirit Power: This is like electricity in our world. It can be used for lighting and is also the power source for ships.
• Spirit Maxwell: I'm not sure what this is.
• La Sugaru (ラ・シュガル) & A Juuru (ア・ジュール): These are the names for the two large countries in Liese Maxia. They're fighting a great war. The latter appears to be a developing nation.

(Note: the romanizations or the country names are probably waaaaay off. The world name is official, though.)

Battle details include mention of "AC," or "Assault Counter." As you perform attacks, you'll deplete your AC. Until this reaches 0, all your attacks are connected.

The game will also use something called "Link Mode," apparently for linking up your characters during the fight (I believe there was some mention of this during the game's announcement last week). When in Link Mode, the character you're controlling is the master. The linked character will team up to surround the enemy, block, and so-forth.

There's somewhat of a separation in ages for the main characters who were introduced last week. Male lead Jude (not "Shuto," as I wrote in an earlier story) is 15-years-old. Female lead Mira is 20. Jude looks up to Mira and wants to be able to help her. He encounters her while investigating some strange happening.

Mira is said to be capable of summoning the four great spirits.

One of the major announcements last week was that Jude and Mira are designed by different character designers, respectively Kosuke Fujishima and Mutsumi Inomata. In an interview this week, producer Hideo Baba says that the two character designers are designing an equal number of characters for the game.

ADDED 15:58

Nomura On Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy

Tetsya Nomura shares a few additional comments on Dissidia Duodecim Final Fantasy in this week's Famitsu. Nomura tells the magazine that there are additional character announcements on the way, including character(s) from the Super NES Final Fantasy games. Also, it looks like the original's story will be included in Duodecim.

There will be some sort of surprise announcement at the January 18 1st Production Something-Or-Other event. I believe this is in reference to Duodecim.

NOTE: Regarding new characters, Nomura actually said that the new characters will appear from the Super NES and beyond. This could mean anything except the NES games.

5pb Still Woking With Hideo Kojima and Suda 51

Remember all that talk about some sort of tie-up production between Suda 51, Hideo Kojima and 5pb. CEO Chiyomaru Shikura? There's mention of it in this week's Famitsu. The new game is an adventure title and is currently 1% complete.

Mention of the Kojima and Suda project comes in an interview with Shikura about another 5pb. title, the company's previously teased third "science-themed adventure" title. Titled Roboticsnauts (ロボティクスノーツ), the new game will have 3D visuals. There's no platform listed, but in the interview, Shikura said that they won't let down fans who've supported the company's past science adventure titles.

Just so there's no confusion, even though there's a "nauts" in the title, Roboticsnauts is NOT the Kojima collaboration game. So no rumors about a Policenauts sequel!

NOTE: The romanization is actually Robotics:notes

ADDED 12:07

BlazBlue Continuum Shift II Set for PSP

BlazBlue Continuum Shift II, just an arcade version of the home version of BlazBlue Continuum Shift with all the download content unlocked, is coming to PSP. Dengeki reveals this week that a PSP port is due for Spring release. It will have new scenarios, a mysterious "Abyss Mode" (this could be a dungeon RPG mode) and a network mode. The network mode supports four players. Two players fight while the other two watch the match.

In the arcades, BlazBlue CS 2 is basically the home version of BlazBlue CS with all the download content unlocked.

More CG For Final Fantasy IV Complete Collection

Square Enix continues to give out little bits and pieces on Final Fantasy IV Complete Collection. Our last update from Jump revealed that the game will add a new CG opening for the "The After Years" part. Dengeki reveals this week that the CG movies from the DS version of FFIV will also be included.

Team Persona Seeks Staff

It looks like the team at Atlus behind Persona (and Catherine) is seeking staff. The developer plans on hiring a large number of people around summer 2011.

This information comes from Dengeki, although I'm not sure in what form.

Classic Dungeon Gets a Sequel

Dengeki has a first look this week at Classic Dungeon 2. In development for PSP, the reto-styled RPG from Nippon Ichi will have more jobs, equipment, magic and customization elements. A release is set for March 24.

The return of the 8-bit!

Date Set for Dynasty Warriors 7

Dynasty Warriors 7 is due for March 10 release, Dengeki reveals this week. The game will be priced ¥7,560. Aside from the date, the info in the magazine is apparently the same as what Famitsu had last week.

The wait for 3D Dynasty Warriors won't be long.

ADDED 11:59

Tetsuya Nomura Details January Conference

Tetsuya Nomura has shared a few details with Dengeki on the upcoming "Square Enix 1st Production Department Premier" event (formerly the "Fabula Nova Crystallis Conference").

The event was originally scheduled for January 11, but was pushed back to January 18. The reason for this was due to timing related to magazine publishing.

While the event was originally announced as being mostly a press event, it has instead shifted to being a "premium event" for fans. The focus will be not on demos but on video footage.

Developers of the various games will appear at the event.

Versus will, as expected, be shown at the event. We'll get to hear main character Noctis speak for the first time. In addition, we'll get to see plenty of actual footage from the game, although this is apparently before the game's visuals have been given a quality bosot.

Kingdom Hearts 3DS and Kingdom hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix will also be shown.

We know what they've been saying. Soon, we'll know how they're saying it!

No Custom Voices for International 3rd Birthday

The Japanese version of The 3rd Birthday lets players switch main character Aya Brea's voice to match her current costume. This is something that won't be in the English version of the game, Tetsuya Nomura reveals in a Dengeki interview this week.

Nomura also told the magazine that the game's shower scene will be difficult to unlock. He believes it would have been just as fine if it hadn't been in the game.

We could get more shooters from Nomura and crew. He told the magazine that if he were to make a shooter in the future, he'd like to make use of the experience learned from The 3rd Birthday.

The coolest thing about the customizable voices was that Aya's Japanese voice actor also did Final Fantasy XIII's Lightning. (Shown here: Aya's Lightning costume.)