This site recently went up...

http://www.konami.jp/kojima_pro/japanes … ds_00.html

Umm... isn't Lunar Knights for the DS by Konami featuring nearly the exact same gameplay mechanics (sans real sun) and character designs supposed to be what happened to Boktai DS?  Why are there two of these games now?  Why does Jango look like a freak in that site?  What the heck...?

I think what we are looking at here is the difference between Western and Eastern art design in advertisement. That's still the character we know as Aaron, but he's being referred to as the "new Django" in Japan for the time being.

Anyway, Bokura no Taiyou DS = Lunar Knights.

I guess the first two games kind of bombed over here (COULD THAT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH RELEASING THEM IN THE WINTER?!?), so they skipped localizing #3 and chose a new name for the next entry. Since it's going to have a new storyline, it's not an entirely devious change, but I still kind of wish they had tried to bring out Sabata's Counterattack this summer.

What I would like to know is why there's two dates there - can anyone translate whichever one isn't the game's release?

Neither one is the release date. 8/15 is when there'll be additional news, while the official site will open on 9/22.

I honestly had no clue there was a third game released O_O  I only tried the first one for a bit, and while I enjoyed the gameplay and overall style, the sun sensor precluded me from buying it (commute is mostly underground). The addition of a virtual time cycle this time around is very nice indeed.

Yeah, the sun sensor is the unfortunate weak point of the series, even though it's a neat idea. I imagine it killed quite a bit of curiousity some had over the series.

You may be curious to know that where the first was kind of a rambling and roaming action-adventure, the second and third are "tighter" action-RPGs (not to mention they continue to have nice art direction and excellent music) with more NPC-interaction and weapon forging and whatnot.

Anyway, thanks for the translations!

I just found IGN's article saying that the sun sensor can still be used for Boktai DS. Now I feel like getting one of the GBA games just for the novelty of it. I'm wondering about one thing, though. It's been mentioned that Lucian's power is derived from the moon, but is the sun sensor able to pick up on moonlight? Or will the game automatically revert back to the virtual time cycle during the night?

That's good to know. The series' 3/4 perspective does seem to lend itself better to a more action-oriented format. I'm definitely in the mood for a good action-RPG, so maybe I'll pick these up and let my Action Replay be my sun.