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Rodea : The Sky Soldier coming out in Spring 2015 (Wii U / 3DS, Japan) [up: screens]

L~A

Member
Edit: some pics from Famitsu

l_54630936ea3a421sb1.jpg
l_546309325a75e7lsdq.jpg


l_5463093516d0cr3srz.jpg
l_54630939329dczhsem.jpg

Some details from Famitsu:

The action game begins on the floating continent of Garuda, in the ruins of which a curious girl named Ion discovers and reactivates Rodea, the legendary “Majin” machine soldier, after a 1,000 year slumber. Rodea lost his memory and is found with his right arm completely destroyed. All that remains of his memory is a “fierce battle from the past” and “a girl with facial features similar to Ion.” He and Ion join forces to fight against the machine empire of Naga, who are approaching Garuda with the aim to capture the continent’s “Gravity Energy.

Gematsu

***

Looks like we're already getting some Famitsu leaks, and there's a nice surprise in this week's issue... Rodea : The Sky Soldier is apparently coming out next spring in Japan. It is indeed coming out on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.

Some details courtesy of StreetsAhead:

Some notes:
-The Japanese name has changed from Tenku-no-kishi Rodea (天空の機士ロデア) to Rodea The Sky Soldier (ロデア・ザ・スカイソルジャー). Meaning in English is the same, they've just gone with a katakana title.
-3DS version is 5,800 yen (pre-tax), and Wii U is 7,200 yen (pre tax).
-First print of the Wii U version will apparently come with the bonus of the Wii version (but non of the blogs I've checked seem to know exactly what this means).
-Bosses are huge, many hundreds times the size of Rodea himself.
-The three characters here are all pictured/mentioned.

The game is currently 85% complete according to the Famitsu article. There's definitely be some sort of staff reshuffle though. Previously the game was only being produced by Kadokawa Games with Zin Hasegawa serving as producer, and Yuji Naka as the director/lead game designer. But now it seems Kadokawa Games is co-developing the game as well, with Yoshimi Yasuda serving as producer, and Zin Hasegawa as director.

No further details for now, though a first scan is arleady floating around (scans are not allowed here, so I won't post it).
 

Aostia

El Capitan Todd
wai...uoooot!??!?! Wii U version entitled to be the worst looking game on the platform so far, I bet. ;p
Can't wait to see it in motion to understand how it came to be!
 
Eshop game, I assume? It's cross-platform and started its life as a wii title so at the very least I'd imagine the wiiu version won't be retail. 3ds one could probably be, though.
 
Wow. Been waiting on this for so long. Great to hear about it. curious to know about how different the wiimote u version looks from the previous version... Maybe just frame rate, and res bump.
 

L~A

Member
Cool! What about that penguin pirate game? Did that ever come out?

Nope, and I believe Inafune has said development was completed several months ago and Marvelous was basically sitting on it and not doing anything with it.
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
Fantastic news, I so hope someone (Nintendo?) picks this up for European release. Otherwise, I'll probably have to import a japanese 3DS some day. I was really pessimistic about this game being released and so happy now to hear that it's coming. Ivy the Kiwi was a fantastic game, so I'm very pumped for a NiGHTS-meets-space-shooter by the same team :).

EDIT: Correcting this: I'd absolutely prefer a Wii U-version due to pointer controls, so I'd proabably import a Wii U and get a second GamePad this way, too - would probably end up cheaper than an imported 3DS and buying another GamePad later down the line anyway. They are not region locked, right :/?
 

efyu_lemonardo

May I have a cookie?
Nope, and I believe Inafune has said development was completed several months ago and Marvelous was basically sitting on it and not doing anything with it.

Oh really? I had no idea, thought it wasn't even close to being done. Still, Rodea has been finished for 3 years now, so it deserves precedence.
 

efyu_lemonardo

May I have a cookie?
Fantastic news, I so hope someone (Nintendo?) picks this up for European release. Otherwise, I'll probably have to import a japanese 3DS some day. I was really pessimistic about this game being released and so happy now to hear that it's coming. Ivy the Kiwi was a fantastic game, so I'm very pumped for a NiGHTS-meets-space-shooter by the same team :).

EDIT: Correcting this: I'd absolutely prefer a Wii U-version due to pointer controls, so I'd proabably import a Wii U and get a second GamePad this way, too - would probably end up cheaper than an imported 3DS and buying another GamePad later down the line anyway. They are not region locked, right :/?

Yuji Naka was quite pleased with how this game came out, especially in terms of the controls on Wii, I think he said it was his best game for the system.
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
The Wii U is getting a third party game not from Namco? And it's a non-Sonic game from Sega? Whoa.... (lol)

Cool stuff I guess, although I have no idea about this game haha. Were there any trailers for this originally?
 

Aostia

El Capitan Todd
Nope, and I believe Inafune has said development was completed several months ago and Marvelous was basically sitting on it and not doing anything with it.

It will be the percfect fit for 2015 aside RF5 and Fantasy Life 2!

Wow. A 3rd party Wii-U exclusive announced. I wonder how different it is from the Wii version that never came out.

Yay! This could be 1 of the 3 rumored exclusive that site (that hinted at Devil's third) talked about?
 

efyu_lemonardo

May I have a cookie?
The Wii U is getting a third party game not from Namco? And it's a non-Sonic game from Sega? Whoa.... (lol)

Cool stuff I guess, although I have no idea about this game haha. Were there any trailers for this originally?

Not Sega, Prope, Yuji Naka's company. And there was a trailer, it looks like a cross between Sonic and NiGHTS.

edit: here's the highest quality I could find

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybHJXcEwH8w

edit2: this is higher quality:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x12cduk_rodea-the-sky-soldier-debut-trailer-january-2011_videogames
 

efyu_lemonardo

May I have a cookie?
Maybe it was canceled and then they saved it.

It was never canceled. Kadokawa were sitting on it. I think they decided against releasing another Wii title at the end of its life after their previous game (Earth Seeker) bombed hard.

Also they were new to the game publishing business at the time and probably wanted to build up a bigger portfolio, not to mention they had a separate team working on the 3DS version.
 

Aostia

El Capitan Todd
yes, this will not be a "nintendo saved" game, and unfortunately (for localization and quality reasons) neither a nintendo co-developed game.
it just seems that the publisher was sitting on it, while the developer was asked to up-rez the game to run on the Wii U.
But the original game was interesting, and the scan confirms (to me) the art direction, the flying section, and good (in terms of sky-inpired elements) environments, so I hope to see it in the West
 

Celine

Member
Wow. A 3rd party Wii-U exclusive announced. I wonder how different it is from the Wii version that never came out.
I would be fine if it was just the same (maybe if slightly different shader) but at 1080p and 60 fps.

Don't fail me Yuji Naka (although he probably have nothing to do with the WiiU port).
 
Some notes:
-The Japanese name has changed from Tenku-no-kishi Rodea (天空の機士ロデア) to Rodea The Sky Soldier (ロデア・ザ・スカイソルジャー). Meaning in English is the same, they've just gone with a katakana title.
-3DS version is 5,800 yen (pre-tax), and Wii U is 7,200 yen (pre tax).
-First print of the Wii U version will apparently come with the bonus of the Wii version (but none of the blogs I've checked seem to know exactly what this means).
-Bosses are huge, many hundreds times the size of Rodea himself.
-The three characters here are all pictured/mentioned.
-Probably already known from way back, but the produce is Yoshimi Yasuda and the director appears to be Hitoshi Hasegawa.
 

NewGame

Banned
Gameplay looks weird. Boss battles are like Shadow Of The Colossus but you can fly all over the place?

Fingers crossed for localization.
 

L~A

Member
Oh wow, forgot all about this. Wondered what happened it.

Simple: Wii version was completed way too late in the console's life for it to be a viable release for Kadokawa. They then decided to port the game on the 3DS, but they had to find a way to get the controls to work without the pointer controls... then they decided to have a Wii U version alongside the 3DS version.

It's a real mess, really.
 

@MUWANdo

Banned
Not having a jab at anyone in this thread, but, why is it against the rules to post scans but completely within the rules to paraphrase everything written in the scans?

Anyway, I'm glad and somewhat surprised this game is still coming, despite the fact that we've barely been given enough info to make a guess at whether or not it'll actually be fun. I hope someone asks Prope/Naka about his involvement.
 
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