It has been a scorching minute since I final crossed paths with JRPG sequence Wild Arms and Shadow Hearts, however at the moment the important thing creators behind each of those late 90s and early 00s RPGs have introduced they’re making two brand-new JRPGs which can be impressed by their earlier works – they usually’re launching a ‘double Kickstarter’ marketing campaign to assist fund them. The video games are known as Penny Blood and Armed Fantasia (no factors for guessing who’s making what), and primarily based on what I’ve seen to date, I am intrigued.
Armed Fantasia is, as you might need surmised, being made by former Wild Arms devs beneath the banner of their new studio Wild Bunch Productions. The creator of the sequence, Akifumi Kaneko, is on board dealing with lead recreation design and situation writing, and composer Michiko Naruke is again together with fellow musicians Noriyasa Agematsu and his group Components Backyard. Like Wild Arms, Armed Fantasia has a ‘westernpunk’ theme, and follows a gaggle of adventurers generally known as Pathfinders on their journey by way of the wilderness. They every have their very own ARM (or aether response maximiser) weapon at hand, they usually’ll be dispatching unusual ‘anomalies’ which can be ravaging the land.
Wild Bunch promise a “gigantic” world map filled with issues to do (though here is hoping it isn’t one which follows the Ubisoft faculty of open world design), however it appears like there’ll nonetheless be good old school dungeons to discover as properly. It actually appears beautiful primarily based on the screenshots, and its turn-based battle system appears notably flashy. It isn’t but clear how every character’s ARM weapons will differ from each other, however fights will utilise what the devs are referring to as a ‘cross order ways’ system, permitting characters to disrupt enemy flip orders to their benefit.
Penny Blood, in the meantime, is a gothic horror RPG set within the Nineteen Twenties that is being headed up by the creator of the Shadow Hearts sequence’ new studio Yukikaze. Shadow Hearts director Matsuzo Machida is on lead recreation design and situation writing duties for this one, and artist Miyako Kato has additionally returned to design the characters. Authentic composer Yoshitaka Hirota is again, too.
Right here, you will play as non-public investigator Matthew Farrell as he travels the world looking unusual monsters. He himself has some supernatural skills, and you will be placing them to good use in Penny Blood’s ‘psycho sigil’ battle system, which the builders say “combines conventional turn-based JRPG technique with twitch-trigger response occasions”. Most likely one thing akin to the Mario & Luigi sequence of RPGs, then (or Yakuza: Like A Dragon), I might think about, with some timed button presses within the combine.
Extra fascinating to me is its Sanity Factors system, which apparently makes occasion members unpredictable in the event that they lose too a lot of them by spending time within the firm in demons, but additionally provides them a lift in power. Once more, it isn’t fully clear how you will acquire extra of those factors over time, or how a lot technique will probably be concerned in deploying them, however I am undoubtedly up for a sanity system that is not simply ‘every little thing will get exponentially worse as a result of everybody’s gone mad’ form of factor (I am taking a look at you, Amnesia / Everlasting Darkness).
Yow will discover out extra about each video games over on their Double Kickstarter web page, which works reside on August twenty ninth at 9am PT / 5pm BST. Collectively, the studios are asking for a mixed purpose of $750,000 to fund each recreation initiatives, however in a enjoyable twist, backing one recreation can even assist to contribute towards the shared ‘combo meter’ of the opposite, that means you will be serving to to unlock targets and different content material throughout each video games to get them over the end line.
Primarily based on what I’ve seen (which is solely primarily based on a handful of screenshots to date) I am cautiously optimistic about these and will definitely be maintaining a tally of them. I have been burned earlier than by different massive identify JRPG creators of yore taking to Kickstarter to fund massive ardour initiatives that publishers presumably will not deign to take a danger on today (with former Suikoden devs’ tedious Eiyuden Chronicle Rising being the prime instance right here), however like I stated, cautious optimism is the place I am at with these ones in the mean time.