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XSEED announces Unchained Blades for 3DS/PSP (eShop/PSN only)

Volcynika

Member
XSEED Games to Publish RPG Title Unchained Blades on PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system and Nintendo 3DS™ in North America

Dungeon-Style Japanese RPG Title from Lunar and Grandia Series Veterans Coming as a Digital Download in 2012

Torrance, Calif., (March 28th, 2012) – XSEED Games, an independent-minded publisher, is pleased to announce today that the company will be bringing the dungeon-crawling RPG title, Unchained Blades, to gamers in North America on both the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system and the Nintendo 3DS™ hand-held system in 2012. Originally released as UnchainBlades ReXX in Japan last summer and developed by FuRyu, Unchained Blades is a role-playing game set in a monster-filled world, and was directed by Toshio Akashi of the Lunar series, while the game’s story was penned by Grandia series veteran Takashi Hino.

“We at XSEED Games are delighted with the opportunity to bring a title like Unchained Blades to North American gamers,” said Ken Berry, Director of Publishing at XSEED Games. “Unchained Blades represents a collaboration between some of Japan’s most high-profile developers and artists, offering a unique blend of classic RPG gameplay paired with an eclectic mix of art styles.”

Unchained Blades follows the story of the dragon emperor, Fang, who after being stripped of his powers by the goddess Clunea, embarks on a journey for revenge and to regain his true form. Arrogant and vengeful, Fang is joined in his quest by a cowardly golem prince, a shy medusa priestess, a young phoenix clan maiden, and many other mythical beings seeking to meet with the goddess.

Due to the collaborative nature of the game’s design, each of the 13 main characters was created by a different artist. The main character Fang was designed by Pako, most famous for his work on the Shining Force series, while other characters were fashioned by artists such as Toshiyuki Kubooka (Lunar), Shinichiro Otsuka (Summon Night), and Kazushi Hagiwara (Bastard!!), to name a few. As such, each character has its own distinct and signature style.

In Unchained Blades, players journey through the game with a party of up to four characters, moving through dungeons in a first-person perspective and engaging in turn-based combat along the way. Using the game’s unique “Unchain” system while in battle, players are able to try and convince monsters to follow them. If they are successful in using the Unchain system, the enemy monster will then join their party and help them in the future by blocking attacks or supplying players with special offensive abilities. Each character in the player’s four person party can hold up to four "followers", ensuring plenty of combat variety. The game has also been completely redubbed with new English voice-overs and boasts over 60 hours of gameplay.

Developed by FuRyu and published by XSEED Games, Unchained Blades is currently in production and will release as a digital download on the PSP system and Nintendo 3DS in 2012. XSEED Games will be sending out more product info in the coming months.

About XSEED Games:
XSEED Games was formed in November 2004 by a small group of industry veterans led by president Jun Iwasaki with a common vision: to cross pollinate the avid gaming cultures of Japan and North America. Delivering unique, innovative titles across multiple platforms and genres, XSEED Games is dedicated to publishing products that appeal and enrich the North American market. More information on XSEED Games can be found at http://www.xseedgames.com

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OcU7AZUn0Y

Better than keeping it in a thread with the game not in the title!
 

scy

Member
I said it there and I'll say it again: Pleasantly surprised at the amount of dungeon crawlers we seem to be getting this year.

Even if one of them is good ol' ReXX here
no idea if the game is bad or not
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Sounds like no Japanese voice acting with that wording. In before complaints.

No idea if this is even any good. Hard to take Wyrdwad's word for it since, you know, he works for XSEED. Like some of the music I've heard though.
 

ZenaxPure

Member
I am on board for a 3DS version, I have been dying for some sort of dungeon crawler on the 3DS e-shop to play at random without messing with any cartridges. I have to wonder if they will add any 3D touches to that version, though. I doubt it and it doesn't bother me either way but I am curious.

I am curious about the price as well considering how cheap most 3DS e-shop games are.
 
so is this any good? hope ghostlight picks it up for the UK or i'll have to get it off the US store.

Well, the dungeons are colossi:

9Sdit.jpg
 

Effect

Member
Nice. Iwata said the 3DS was setup to received download versions of retail games but they hadn't finalize on how they were going to handle it. Glad to see they've seemingly dealt with that. I wonder how big it's going to be. I do wish Nintendo would display how many megs something is instead of just how many blocks it takes up.
 

Luigi87

Member
Digital. Digital! Let's get digital~


But yay for confirmation.
...now to decide 3DS or Vita download (assuming it will be compatible)...

Edit: Ah, it is indeed Vita-compatible...Hmm...
 

Ken

Member
Not a huge fan of these types of games but I'll buy it anyways just because it's nice to see its localization.
 

t26

Member
so which version is better? I am leaning towards PSP since the game won't be tie to the system.
 

Luigi87

Member
Out of context voice samples placed over a trailer are weird x.x

Looking forward to seeing and hearing more... In-context, where it will probably sound a lot better.
 

Eusis

Member
No kidding. Lord, that's closing in on Arc Rise Fantasia level VA.
Except I think this actually is done by the usual suspects rather than no names (dragon guy SOUNDED like Troy Baker to me).

It feels ODD for this to be DD though, which is what bugs me the most. Corpse Party seemed to be such a niche title that no way could it fly in retail, and NISA's stuff was noticeably a tier below in some fashion (Badman was a perfect fit for a game to just keep on your system actually). This comes off as the kind of game I'd normally expect at retail, ESPECIALLY due to being dubbed, and while it's to be expected you'd have trouble getting it in retail on the PSP on the 3DS it's... Well, I'll take it however I can if it's good enough, but I can't deny it's a disappointment.
 
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