Following the proclamation by Square Enix and Yahoo that the former’s new game, predicted to be revealed today, May 21, would “make Japanese history,” guesses were all over the place as to what would actually be revealed. The official word has now come and if your guess was “a free browser-based strategy game taking place in Japan’s Sengoku era,” you’re absolutely correct!

Called Sengoku IXA, Square Enix’s new game is a free browser title developed by One-Up, with visuals created by Square Enix’s Yusuke Naora. For details on how the game actually plays, Andriasang has a write-up on how it all works. Put very simply, you build up an army and team up with other plays to expand one of 12 territories. Battles unfold over the course of three actual days, with combat being either automated or something that you control manually — it’s your choice. You’ll also earn virtual cards with five degrees of rarity; the cards are likely to be one of the ways Square Enix makes money off the game, as it looks as if they’ll be selling the cards through an online store, according to Andriasang, as well as other convenience items.

A closed beta for the game will begin on May 27. Anyone interested needs to have a Japanese Yahoo ID and has to sign up on the game’s official website by May 25.

Tomorrow, May 22, marks the 30 year anniversary of the release of Pac-Man in Japan. To celebrate the occasion, Google has altered its logo (called a Google Doodle) as it often does for various occasions, like the invention of the barcode or the Winter Olympics. While the logo you see above looks neat and might seem like a fairly standard standard way for Google to celebrate the original release of Pac-Man, it’s actually much cooler — after waiting for a few seconds or by pressing “Insert Coin” on Google’s homepage, you can actually play Pac-Man right there in your browser with your keyboard’s arrow keys.

According to TheStar.com, the game features all 256 levels — including the infamous bug on level 256 — and will be available for 48 hours, from 8AM PST today (Friday) through 8AM PST on Sunday. It’s the first interactive Doodle that Google has ever done and was created by Google senior user experience designer Marcin Wichary.

For some added fun, you can enable a 2-player mode by pressing “Insert Coin” once the game has already started and play as both Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, the latter of which you control with the WASD keys.

Twitter is growing in Japan. What was the hot buzzword of 2008 in the United States is only now becoming commonplace on the other side of the Pacific. Each week, we’ll be scanning the Tweets of various Japanese industry figures and translating the best of them for you. Don’t worry if you don’t recognize the names. We’ll include some of each creator’s most famous games next to their tweets.

Another week, another round of tweets from Japanese game makers. Parties seem to be the order of the day during the pre-E3 lull. Q Entertainment’s Mizuguchi promoted a Genki Rockets, while Kojima and Suda 51 partied in Tokyo. Before that, Square’s Yoichi Wada talked about innovation, and Hideki Kamiya seemed a little weirded out by his fans.

“On May 21, we will make Japanese History!”

So says the banner on this Yahoo! Japan games site. In a cross-promotion with the Japanese version of the prolific search engine, Square Enix will announce their new game on Friday, May 21.

When Dragon Quest VIII came to the U.S. a few years back, it brought with it a slate of improvements over the original Japanese release. So, you might be surprised to learn that when its sequel arrives here on July 11, it will be almost completely identical (language aside) to the game that has held Japan rapt for the past year. But then, Dragon Quest IX doesn’t really need the changes its predecessor underwent; most of those were technical improvements, such as the addition of voice acting and orchestral music, that worked better on a PlayStation 2 game than they would for a DS release.

More to the point, though, DQIX doesn’t really need a significant overhaul. The game was Japan’s best-selling release of 2009 for a reason, after all. And no, you can’t pin that success entirely on the country’s love for all things Dragon Quest. Only slightly more than half of DQIX’s sales came in the first week of its existence, with the remainder coming in steadily over the course of months as word of the game’s quality trickled out. DQIX was a guaranteed success, of course, but the magnitude of its success stems from word-of-mouth praise and the game’s addictive social elements.

Over in Japan today, Sega revealed that an Xbox 360 port of multi-player robot shooter Virtual-On Force is currently in the works.

The game, unlike Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram (playable now on XboxLive Arcade), will be sold at retail stores in Japan. No release date is available yet for the title, which was pegged at around 30% complete by Sega PR.

Originally launched for arcades in 2001, Virtual-On Force is a multi-player shooter pitting giant robots against each other in a series of futuristic arenas. (The 2003 PlayStation 2 game Virtual-On Marz had most of Force’s functionality, but wasn’t a straight port.)

A quick peek at the most interesting games due out in Japan next week, as game reviewed in the latest issue of Famitsu magazine:

- Super Mario Galaxy 2 (10/9/9/9, 37 points): Unsurprisingly, gamers in Japan are just as excited about Miyamoto’s latest as their American counterparts. Famitsu’s editors were especially jazzed about how innovative the stages are this time around — “My hat goes off to how varied the stages are; they never get boring, and there’s a charm to them that makes you want to keep on playing,” one wrote.

“The challenge level of the action and puzzle-solving parts is exquisitely balanced as always,” another added. “You go through these cycles of pondering over some part of the game, finding the answer, and finishing the stage, and it keeps you engaged throughout. It’s just the sort of game you’d expect from the Mario brand.”

Slowly, methodically, Nintendo has begun to ramp up the hype machine for Pokemon Black/White over in Japan. Earlier this week they launched the first tantalizing details behind the games, from the three starter Pokemon to the story’s new setting in the skyscraper-dotted Isshu region. Now they’ve launched a bit more information on Zorua and Zoroark (above), a couple of the event Pokemon for this generation of the series.

Originally unveiled in Japan back in February, the foxlike Zorua and its evolution Zoroark are “illusion”-type Pokemon, meaning they’re able to transform into different Pokemon at will. This makes them a bit like Ditto, one of the original Red/Blue Pokemon, except they can copy any creature, not just the one they’re fighting at the moment.

Getting Zoroark is easy, assuming you’re patient and living in Japan. First off, you’ll need to buy an advance ticket for the Pokemon anime flick due out this summer over there, Pokemon Diamond/Pearl: Zoroark, Ruler of Illusion; they’re available between now and July 9. Doing so earns you differently-colored versions of one of three event Pokemon of the past — Raikou, Entei or Suicune — which you can then use in Pokemon Diamond/Pearl, Platinum, or HeartGold/SoulSilver. Bringing this creature over to Black/White when it comes out will trigger a special battle against Zoroark, letting you capture it assuming you’re man enough to emerge victorious.

Square Enix has just launched their financial results for the last year, and it’s been a record-breaking year for the company. According to the investor relations report, Square Enix achieved 27.8 billion yen (roughly £300 million) in profits during the fiscal year ending March 2010 — a new all-time high for the company.

Square Enix also moved a record total of 26.66 million games worldwide during fiscal 2009, with major releases like Dragon Quest IX, Final Fantasy XIII, and Bcash machinean: Arkham Asylum accounting for a great deal of the publisher’s increased profits.

Final Fantasy XIII was the biggest hit for the company at 5.55 million units sold globally, while Dragon Quest IX secured second place with an astonishing 4.26 million copies sold in Japan alone. Bcash machinean: Arkham Asylum moved a combined 3.24 million across all territories, followed by Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days at 1.49 million, the Japanese remake of Dragon Quest VI at 1.29 million, and Just Cause 2 at a little under one million units.

Although Nintendo president Satoru Iwata recently said that “Nintendo 3DS” would not be the “formal name” for Nintendo’s new handheld, new Japanese trademark filings possibly suggest otherwise. According to Siliconera, Nintendo has filed trademarks for “3DSWare” and “3DSPlay.”

The former clearly suggests Nintendo may be planning a down-loadable games service for the 3DS similar to the DSiWare service they have for the DSi. As for 3DSPlay, that’s harder to say — obviously Nintendo launched a mini-game compellation on the Nintendo Wii called Nintendo Wii Play, but whether 3DSPlay is some sort of equivalent to show off what they’re new hand-held is capable of remains to be seen.

On top of these two 3DS-specific trademark filings, Nintendo also filed trademarks in Japan for DS Sound, DS Name Card, DS Magazine, DSfilm, DSCamera, DSCinema, DSMessage, DSMusic, and DSAlbum — all of which could simply be to protect these terms, with Nintendo not necessarily having any ideas to use them with any real products. Could it be the same with 3DSWare and 3DSPlay? Possibly, but no doubt all will be revealed when E3 kicks off in a few weeks.