Platform: PSP
Genre: RPG
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Image Epoch
Official Site: http://www.capcom.co.jp/LR/index.html
Staff
Producer - Minae Matsukawa (Breath of Fire V, Ace Attorney 4)
Director - Kazuya Niinou (Etrian Odyssey, 7th Dragon)
Character Design - Tatsuya Yoshikawa (Breath of Fire series, Devil May Cry 4)
Scenario - Kazushige Nojima (Final Fantasy series, Kingdom Hearts series)
Composer - Yoko Shimomura (Secret of Mana series, Parasite Eve, Kingdom Hearts series)
Main Planner - Hiroyuki Kanemaru (Tales of Symphonia, Arc Rise Fantasia)
Lead Programmer - Takashi Kawamoto (Arc Rise Fantasia)
Characters
Zig (VA: Hiroshi Kamiya) - A hot blooded youth who grew up in a tribe of a wanderers. He is dissatisfied with his life, and leaves the tribe to join the ranking guild in order to find his own inner strength and a purpose to his life. He seeks to be the strongest one of them all.
Ren (VA: Marine Inoue) - A girl who enters the guild at about the same time as Zig. She is actually a survivor of the royal knights from a kingdom which has been destroyed. She seeks to gain fame and fortune in the hopes of finding a way to rebuild her kingdom. She becomes a rival of Zig.
Faz (VA: Yuuichi Nakamura) - A childhood friend of Zig who grew up in the same tribe. When Zig decided to abandon the tribe and seek out his own destiny, he thought he would never see him again. When the two meet again, it is as enemies, and he is another of Zig's rivals.
Game Overview
The game is set in a world filled with warriors known as Rankers. Warriors throughout the land are ranked by a worldwide tournament organization. With each win or loss, a warrior's rank will rise or fall. The objective in this game is for the main character to become the strongest warrior and become rank number one.
Game Details
The scenario is described as an "adult" variation on the shounen fighting theme. Instead of a normal shounen storyline where the main character seeks to become stronger while surrounded by friends and allies who support him and help him along the way, the story in this game attempts to explore themes of individuality and isolation. The main character is the only party member, and it is largely a solo quest even though he might fight many enemies at a time.
As for the gameplay, the battles will not be command based, but action based with realtime elements. That is not to say it is an action RPG. The player will not control the movement of the character in battle, and the battles are still based on a turn based foundation.
The actions available to the player are attack and defense actions, and pressing a button in battle will result in a direct reaction from the character like in an action game. The challenge in battles comes from pure timing, the player must study and learn timing patterns both when attacking and when defending. A skilled player will be able to use timing to defeat much higher level enemies.
Since this is a fantasy RPG, aside from fighting other Rankers to increase your rank, Zig will also be fighting monsters and other enemies in various different situations. As this is a single character game, there will be an emphasis on weapon customization, and the player can decide how to best arm Zig and advance in his combat skills.
For the soundtrack, Shimomura will be composing vocal BGM for the battle themes. Originally she intended to use opera style pieces, but Niinou insisted that it wasn't what he was looking for, instead he wanted "awesome sounding" vocal songs. He says that the intention is to have battle themes which are not typical, but instead something which highlights the focus of the entire game. Since the game is about fighting and battles will be the core of the game, the battle themes should highlight that fact well.
The game is currently 40% complete, and judging from the lack of screenshots in the article, it is probably not quite ready to be shown off just yet. There's no word if it'll be at TGS, but if it is I don't expect more than a short trailer.
Tl;dr Summary
- New Capcom RPG by Image Epoch and Capcom
- It's about fighting, fighting and more fighting
- Battle system is kinda turn-based, with realtime action timing for attacking and defending
- 3D game, kinda looks like Arc Rise Fantasia
- Main character wants to be the best fighter in the world
- If you beat other fighters your rank goes up
- If you lose to other fighters your rank goes down
- No party, single character, weapon customization
- You should care because the director previously made Etrian Odyssey and 7th Dragon
- Game isn't coming out anytime soon, looks barely done
