[Orayn]

A videogame that plays like a board game? Why?

Are you familiar with an obscure genre called "RPG?" Largely the same idea, this one just shows you the table and dice.

[Matsuno]

The dream team of Matsuno & Minaba. So excited for this.

and Smith, Sakimoto, Kitahara.....

[JordanLMiller]

Are you familiar with an obscure genre called "RPG?" Largely the same idea, this one just shows you the table and dice.

Right, but I just don't get why. Why do I need to be shown the dice? Most rpgs don't show you that stuff because it isn't really necessary. I don't think flicking around dice with a stylus is particularly more fun or interesting either. Having a "game master" and whatever else thrown in just sounds like the game is trying way too hard to be something different, while not really changing anything or trying to advance the genre.

But what do I know? It just doesn't look like this one's for me.

[Celine]

So this isn't a full-sized game, right? It's part of a compilation?

Yes.
Looks interesting but I doubt the game will ever leave Japan.

I so hope that eventually it will come out on eshop for western release.

[Dissonance]

Wow looks awesomeeeeee

[Alextended]

It's just a different presentation, all that matters is still the gameplay, battle rules, etc, as long as that presentation isn't itself offensive enough to make it seem shit, which isn't likely. I don't see how having a (not video)gamey presentation makes it automatically trying too hard to be diffferent or inferior or whatever. It at least can have a sense of familiarity and for some nostalgia which is better than trying to make some wannabe cinematic presentation worthy of Vagrant Story 2 and failing due to being without the necessary budget to write it, let alone direct it and make all the content. Or having some boring generic menus to represent everything. But what do I know, dice might be offensive to some people, as weird as that sounds to me...

[that1dude24]

Those backgrounds aren't too kind to the characters. Hopefully they're just early screenshots.

[Reluctant-Hero]

This looks amazing. I pray that we'll see an English translation in the US not long after the JP release.

[PhoReal]

For those of you who are old to remember; Is anyone getting a Hero Quest vibe from this?



Specifically:

[Tiktaalik]

This seems very cool. Very interested.

[Pupi18]

Characters look poor but still interested.

[Celine]

Maybe the lack of hype is because the last time someone decided to make a RPG based on table top RPG gaming, we got Unlimited SaGa. :P

Ahah my thought too.

And that people are far more excited for Suda's game :P

Suda/Grasshopper game looks kind of forgettable actually.

For those of you who are old to remember; Is anyone getting a Hero Quest vibe from this?

HQ was so good.

[luca1980]

Stunning art-direction. This is definitely in the spirit of Vagrant Story.

Yes. Really. Vs vibe.
I hope for lots of ports like iPhone and vita or i'll have to buy a 3ds just for it

[duckroll]

Suda/Grasshopper game looks kind of forgettable actually.

Yeah I think that's going to be the worst game easily. Aside from the awesome BONES animation they commissioned for the opening FMV, the game looks like a simplistic shooter with really poor 3D graphics. Suda isn't known for good action gameplay either, so there isn't much hope there.

[Dascu]

Yeah I think that's going to be the worst game easily. Aside from the awesome BONES animation they commissioned for the opening FMV, the game looks like a simplistic shooter with really poor 3D graphics. Suda isn't known for good action gameplay either, so there isn't much hope there.

The shooters in the NMH games were fun!

[duckroll]

You know what would be awesome, but probably out of the scope of this project? If Level5 decided to release a big LE with Guild01, and it includes an actual tabletop RPG campaign for Crimson Shroud, complete with all the playing pieces, map pieces, the rulebook, die set, etc. :o

[wsippel]

You know what would be awesome, but probably out of the scope of this project? If Level5 decided to release a big LE with Guild01, and it includes an actual tabletop RPG campaign for Crimson Shroud, complete with all the playing pieces, map pieces, the rulebook, die set, etc. :o

I'd buy it.

[electroplankton]

You know what would be awesome, but probably out of the scope of this project? If Level5 decided to release a big LE with Guild01, and it includes an actual tabletop RPG campaign for Crimson Shroud, complete with all the playing pieces, map pieces, the rulebook, die set, etc. :o

They said they'll try to keep the price as low as possible, so I think this is pretty unlikely :P

[Mollymauk]

You know what would be awesome, but probably out of the scope of this project? If Level5 decided to release a big LE with Guild01, and it includes an actual tabletop RPG campaign for Crimson Shroud, complete with all the playing pieces, map pieces, the rulebook, die set, etc. :o

You could put your 3ds in the middle Dark Tower style. :)

[Yuterald]

I'd like to know who the composer is going to be for this game. I can't imagine it being anyone other than Sakimoto. Game looks interesting though.

[Celine]

I'd like to know who the composer is going to be for this game. I can't imagine it being anyone other than Sakimoto. Game looks interesting though.

Music:Sakimoto
Art:Minaba
Game design, scenario: Matsuno

[luca1980]

Music:Sakimoto Art:Minaba Game design, scenario: Matsuno

This trio!!!! One of the best one in all japan and the world

Now all i need is a tabletop rpg for iPhone to taste something before This new yazz gem comes here

[thetrin]

Right, but I just don't get why. Why do I need to be shown the dice? Most rpgs don't show you that stuff because it isn't really necessary. I don't think flicking around dice with a stylus is particularly more fun or interesting either. Having a "game master" and whatever else thrown in just sounds like the game is trying way too hard to be something different, while not really changing anything or trying to advance the genre. But what do I know? It just doesn't look like this one's for me.

I don't even know where to start...

[duckroll]

I think Minaba is really the weak link in the project. I'm not a fan of his character art at all. It's pretty ugly. He should stick to drawing backgrounds and general art. Too bad Yoshida and Minagawa want to remain at Square Enix. :(

[luca1980]

Indeed backgrounds are where he is at his best.
Yoshida as character designer and minaba at art design with minagawa would have been better! I want to see all these images in motion, a video grabs better the idea of the Game. I hope it Will be soon

[Mr. Wonderful]

Will buy unquestioningly because of Matsuno at a high price.

[TurnipFritters]

Flow's got some child-bearing hips.
(I know, I know, Minaba)

[SatelliteOfLove]

Right, but I just don't get why. Why do I need to be shown the dice? Most rpgs don't show you that stuff because it isn't really necessary. I don't think flicking around dice with a stylus is particularly more fun or interesting either. Having a "game master" and whatever else thrown in just sounds like the game is trying way too hard to be something different, while not really changing anything or trying to advance the genre. But what do I know? It just doesn't look like this one's for me.

As much as this line of thinking puts me off my food and is a farce, for Matsuno it's because teams rarely follow what he's done (FFXII -> Xenoblade).

I think Minaba is really the weak link in the project. I'm not a fan of his character art at all. It's pretty ugly. He should stick to drawing backgrounds and general art. Too bad Yoshida and Minagawa want to remain at Square Enix. :(

If only...if only.

[RedSwirl]

All video game RPGs are descended from tabletop, not just WRPGs. Most JRPGs are descended from either DQ or FF, both of which draw direct inspiration from actual tabletop RPGs of the time along with games like Ultima which were inspired by tabletop RPGs. The other JRPGs which weren't influenced by DQ or FF were mostly Japanese PC RPGs back in the day which were inspired by tabletop RPGs as well. The entire genre of RPGs would not exist if not for stuff like D&D, and that's a fact. As for how this game aims to be more like a tabletop experience, it appears that Matsuno is approaching that from both the presentation and the scope. This is not a large scale videogame RPG with huge production values and a huge complex quest. It is meant to be a compact campaign scenario. The game will have a GM, but I think that's simply a presentation aspect. So are all the graphics which represent the player/enemy pieces, and the map layout. This does not look like the sort of RPG where you control a character and run around and so on. It looks more like a game where you interact with pieces on the map, which reading descriptions of events, and reading up descriptions of the characters, the enemies, the locations, etc, and then make decisions. The success and failure of your actions are determined by having to actually interact with a set of die when the GM calls for it. Edit: Dudes, tabletop RPGs are NOT board games. Please educate yourselves. :P

Of course, but from what I can tell JRPGs have strayed more and more over time while WRPGs have stayed slightly truer to their tabletop origins.

[Oni Link 666]

I imagined this game would be more like what would happen if FFT was made into a board game, but this looks pretty different from that. I'm still interested though. I hope we get to see a gameplay video soon.

[Thores]

Oh my gosh. I super want this.

[Finalow]

I need some good RPGs if I want to buy a 3DS, so yeah, hope it will be good enough.

[ixix]

If they're going to be having me simulate the act of rolling dice they'd better have a means for me to contest every roll. Hell, the system has a microphone and everything, they can just let me rattle off a perfunctory excuse and re-roll in the manner to which I am accustomed.

"My finger slipped, going to take a re-roll."

"I wasn't paying attention and can't remember which dice were mine, re-roll."

"It hit the d20 before coming to a complete stop, I'll have to re-roll that one."

"I'm using my free re-roll from a feat or a perk or a magic item or something, you probably haven't heard of it I got it in a game last week and it's not in any of the books you have."

It's not really a table top experience if I'm not spending the majority of my time arguing with the DM.

[Lactose_Intolerant]

For those of you who are old to remember; Is anyone getting a Hero Quest vibe from this?

a little

Someone remake Hero Quest into a 3ds game. This sounds cool too though.

[Ignis Fatuus]

You know what would be awesome, but probably out of the scope of this project? If Level5 decided to release a big LE with Guild01, and it includes an actual tabletop RPG campaign for Crimson Shroud, complete with all the playing pieces, map pieces, the rulebook, die set, etc. :o

Augmented reality.

[duckroll]

Augmented reality.

What about it?

[Ignis Fatuus]

What about it?

You could bring tabletop to life. Not for this project, necessarily, but I think the concept could be amazing with its own dedicated product.

[duckroll]

You could bring tabletop to life. Not for this project, necessarily, but I think the concept could be amazing with its own dedicated product.

Errrr.... that's not really what I meant. I don't care about any of that stuff. I just think it'll be cool if he's designing a table top game, he makes a physical version for fans to play too. AR can suck my dick honestly. Another shitty gimmick next to Stereoscopic 3D.

[Nairume]

If they're going to be having me simulate the act of rolling dice they'd better have a means for me to contest every roll. Hell, the system has a microphone and everything, they can just let me rattle off a perfunctory excuse and re-roll in the manner to which I am accustomed. "My finger slipped, going to take a re-roll." "I wasn't paying attention and can't remember which dice were mine, re-roll." "It hit the d20 before coming to a complete stop, I'll have to re-roll that one." "I'm using my free re-roll from a feat or a perk or a magic item or something, you probably haven't heard of it I got it in a game last week and it's not in any of the books you have." It's not really a table top experience if I'm not spending the majority of my time arguing with the DM.

Given a good GM tends to just ignore those kinds of complaint, you can just pretend the game is ignoring you :V

[ixix]

Given a good GM tends to just ignore those kinds of complaint, you can just pretend the game is ignoring you :V

I actually got away with it most of the time by being one of the only players willing to actually meaningfully engage in the quest of the week. The DM usually let my brazen cheating slide partly out of fear of my abandoning the group and leaving him with nothing but a gaggle of lackwits who were always pestering him about the possibilities of kobold/gnome crossbreeds and what saving throw would determine whether or not an attempted conception was successful, and partly as an acknowledgement of the fact that my utterly execrable little bard needed certain meta-game advantages since I frequently ended up raiding the lair of the demilich solo because the rest of the group had decided they would rather attempt to seduce buxom wenches and lantern-jawed farmhands at the nearest fantastical pub than go on the intended adventure.

So I guess what I should really be lobbying for is local multiplayer so that catty, awful people like me can reap the benefits of being the best of an astonishingly bad lot. Without that it's just not the authentic tabletop experience I know and love was never particularly fond of, now that I actually stop and think about it.

[Pinko Marx]

I am so ready for this.
So ready

[Halfmunch]

Looks fun too me, what I am curious about is the animation? Do the characters move if they are supposed to be like miniature. The characters have very similar poses in the screen shots.

[duckroll]

http://www.4gamer.net/games/142/G014210/20120206042/

Larger pics available:

[Shuusui]

I'll take two, thank you very much.

Sakimoto soundtrack doesn't hurt. Shame about the lack of Yoshida, though..

[Ratchet]

Those character designs give me a strong Vagrant Story vibe, which can only be a good thing. Definitely going to be the highlight of this selection of games.

[speedpop]

The idea itself is great. A functional tabletop RPG in a game. I can barely recall the last time I played a tabletop but I've been itching lately to get in to Pathfinder.

[SatelliteOfLove]

Those character designs give me a strong Vagrant Story vibe, which can only be a good thing. Definitely going to be the highlight of this selection of games.

It's even better once we realize that VS started out as a three-man sorta-partybased WRPG with Ashley teaming up with the characters that became Teeger and Neesa. When those mechanics were dropped due to time constraints, the game took on its current lonely super-agent who inherits the immense power of the Dark form.