Operation Backlog Completion 2025

Spiritual Successors to Wild Arms and Shadow Hearts Announced for Double Kickstarter

 Video games  3 Responses »  Tagged with: , , , , ,
Aug 262022
 

I keep hoping for a new Wild Arms announcement. I keep hoping for a Shadow Hearts revival, too.

But in the absence of those two things, spiritual successors have been announced.

Yes, one for each.

WILD BUNCH Productions, founded by Wild Arms creators, has announced Armed Fantasia: To the Ends of the Wilderness, a large-scale JRPG inspired by Wild Arms.

At the same time, YUKIKAZE, founded by Shadow Hearts creators, has announced gothic horror JRPG Penny Blood, inspired by Shadow Hearts.

The two will hold a joint Kickstarter for these games, with a combined funding goal of $750,000 for PC releases. The campaign will begin on August 29.

Overviews of the two games, along with information about how the joint Kickstarter will work, are detailed here by Gematsu. An interview with the two development teams also sheds further light on them.

What stands out to me the most is that these two games are fully embracing their inspirations. Armed Fantasia looks like Wild Arms, and Penny Blood looks like Shadow Hearts.

(According to the interview, the Armed Fantasia characters being called Pathfinders is even just a different translation of the same Japanese word that was translated as Drifters in Wild Arms.)

Armed Fantasia is aiming to have a “gigantic” world map, with the aim being a world map “so big that there isn’t a word to express how big it is.” That makes me a little nervous, both because this is a crowdfunded project and because having your goal just be to have the biggest map possible doesn’t feel to me like the best priority. However, it also sounds like there’s a chance that it’ll be a traditional JRPG world map, which would make me very happy.

Moving on to Penny Blood, while it looks like a Shadow Hearts successor through and through (it’s not visible in any of the screenshots, but the interview describes a “Psycho Sigil” that sounds like the new version of the Judgement Ring), it stands out from its predecessors by involving murder investigations. According to the interview, sub-quests will feature “fingerprinting, voiceprint profiling, mental profiling such as Rorschach tests, and other pioneering methods of criminal profiling.”

One concern I had initially is that the funding goal seems low for this sort of project, but it sounds like the Kickstarter is intended to be used to demonstrate interest and get a publisher on board. With as ambitious as these games look, I hope they succeed.

So a Wild Arms spiritual successor and a Shadow Hearts spiritual successor that’s also a detective game; I haven’t been this excited for a Kickstarter in quite a while! Check out the articles I linked above to learn more about the games, and then join me in waiting for the Armed Fantasia and Penny Blood Kickstarter campaign to go live!

What are your thoughts on Armed Fantasia and Penny Blood?

Wild Arms: Million Memories Gameplay Revealed

 Video games  5 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Aug 312018
 

There was a live stream today about the upcoming Wild Arms mobile game, Wild Arms: Million Memories, which included its first trailer as well as new details.

Million Memories stars the main characters of all the Wild Arms games, along with a new character named Brittany Shrewsbury. It will have many other characters, both new and returning, as well.

You’ll play through main quests, sub-quests focused on characters, and limited time events, so it sounds like the basic mobile JRPG formula. They also showed the gameplay, which puts you in control of a party of three characters, plus one support character, for… action combat?

Here’s the gameplay segment of the live stream, recorded by DualShockers.

Why do this? There are popular turn-based mobile RPGs out there, so why make the Wild Arms mobile game action-based?

So you’ll tap to attack, flick to dodge, switch between characters, and build up special attacks. It’s not entirely clear yet if it’ll be a gacha game or not. ARMs sound like the most natural place for gacha here, so maybe it won’t be too bad.

Still, it’s not what I hoped for from a new Wild Arms game. Maybe it will at least pave the way for a full (and turn-based) sequel.

Is a New Wild Arms Game on the Horizon?

 Video games  8 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Jul 232018
 

Today, Wild Arms fans’ hearts leaped as headlines appeared saying that the Wild Arms developer was hiring for a new PS4 RPG.

Could this be a sign that the mobile game isn’t the only Wild Arms game coming out and that we’ll finally see a new Wild Arms for the PS4?

Well, it might be a little early to get our hopes up.

Yes, Media.Vision is hiring a 2D designer for a PlayStation 4 RPG. Yes, Media.Vision developed the Wild Arms games.

However, it’s not like they’ve been silent ever since then and suddenly emerged from the shadows. Media.Vision has worked on many games since then, including Shining Resonance and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth.

I mentioned those two in particular because they’re the most likely candidates for a connection to this job post. Since Shining Resonance Refrain just came out, it’s possible there will be another Shining game to follow it. As for Digimon Story, the producer already confirmed that a new Digimon Story game was in development for the PS4, with Hacker’s Memory made to keep fans interested in the meantime.

If I had to guess, I’d say the new PS4 RPG Media.Vision is hiring for is most likely the next Digimon Story game.

But still, we can dream of a day when Wild Arms 6 will be announced. Maybe it will still come true.

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