Multi Wild Arms creator Akifumi Kaneko and Shadow Hearts creator Matsuzo Machida new large-scale RPGs Double Kickstarter Crowdfunding Campaign

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Armed Fantasia: To the End of the Wilderness and Penny Blood will share a mutual funding goal of $750,000, which will secure a PC release for each game, while a nearby stretch goal will secure ports to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and the newest Nintendo hardware at the time. The “Early-Bird Combo” pledge level will allow early backers to pledge for both games at a highly discounted price.

The Kickstarter campaign will also integrate a “Combo Meter” that affects stretch goals across both games. A pledge for one game will not only add to that game’s stretch goal meter, it will also contribute to the shared Combo Meter that fills up with support from both games. The more the Combo Meter builds up, the more content that is unlocked across both games. By backing one or both games, backers will help build both titles and support other backers. Clearing goals will share content and talent across each game.

Armed Fantasia: To the End of the Wilderness​

■ About
Armed Fantasia: To the End of the WildernessArmed Fantasia: To the End of the Wilderness
Armed Fantasia: To the End of the Wilderness tells a dramatic story that unfolds in a world hurtling towards destruction. Players take the role of a group of Pathfinders and, with trusted ARMs in hand, embark on a perilous journey across a sprawling Westernpunk wilderness.

In a far flung corner of this world lies the land of Londenium, where a young man named Ingram loses his grandfather; the final tether binding him to his hometown. With no other reason to stay, and in hopes of reconnecting with his childhood friend, Ingram sets out on a new adventure as a Pathfinder, a branch of adventurers that utilize the powerful ARM (Aether Reaction Maximizer) weaponry to dispose of Anomalies that ravage the land.

Ingram’s journey will lead him to cross destinies with many a new friend and foe, and become embroiled in a monumental battle that’ll strike through Londenium’s past and its future.
Armed Fantasia: To the End of the Wilderness allows players to experience the spirit of a large-scale party-based Japanese RPG adventure—crossing the great expanse and using their wits to overcome any obstacle in their path.

Featuring a gigantic World Map, players will race, leap, solve puzzles, and feel the momentum of crossing the land, sea and air in high-speed vehicles as they explore and follow the story. The World Map of Armed Fantasia will be packed with things for players to do, rendered with a unique look not seen in other titles.

Dungeon exploration focuses on utilizing each party member’s unique Gadget. Players must switch between Gadgets to solve obstacles standing in their way, embracing the sense of victory when they finally open a particularly tricky path. Traps and treasures lie in wait across both the World Map and its dungeons, requiring both the characters’ skills and the player’s wits to solve and escape in one piece.
Battles in Armed Fantasia: To the End of the Wilderness will be turn-based but maintain a quick tempo, based on the Cross Order Tactics system. Successive character actions play a key role in the Chain Order, and disruptive Force Breaks interrupt enemy turn order, creating engagements filled with tension and suspense that will push players to carefully consider their battle strategy.

“I was charmed by the fact that something like a Double Kickstarter could be a new option for game development, so I decided to lead a new team. But in order for us to pave our way forward, we need everyone’s support!” says lead game designer Akifumi Kaneko.

With a team of veteran creators from the Wild Arms series, Armed Fantasia: To the End of the Wilderness aims for an expansive Westernpunk RPG experience with a modern look… and whistling!

Penny Blood​

■ About
Penny BloodPenny BloodPenny Blood
Penny Blood presents a world twisted in gothic horror and nightmarish imagery rarely seen in Japanese RPGs. In Penny Blood, players follow the story of Matthew, an investigator who embarks on a dark international probe through the iconic Roaring Twenties, amassing allies and confronting trauma in a world twisted by cosmic horror, malice and mayhem.

Players will circumnavigate the globe, from the USA to Europe and Asia, and explore nations either recovering or basking in the wake of one of history’s bloodiest conflicts, oblivious to the turmoil that brews beneath the surface.

Penny Blood’s story begins with Matthew Farrell, a lone wolf private detective in New York working for the Bureau of Investigation. Despite hating the accursed powers he inherited from his father, he utilizes his fusion transformation abilities to hunt down monsters at the behest of the Bureau.

One day, Matthew is tasked with investigating a strange incident that occurred at a mental asylum in New York. After rushing to the asylum, he finds it teeming with grotesque, rampaging creatures. Utilizing his hidden power, Matthew manages to achieve a narrow victory.

In order to unearth the truth behind the bizarre incident, Matthew’s investigation will take him from America to the distant continent of Asia, including Japan and China, as well as to the far corners of Europe. Along the way, he will encounter those who fight for vengeance, those who seek to utilize the aberrant horrors for their own gain, and those who simply wish to destroy. Penny Blood tells the tale of a man who must become that which he seeks to vanquish.

Penny Blood’s overworld maps give a bird’s-eye view of cityscapes and towns that will teleport players to the 1920s, where they will experience the world as it was, unaware of the gruesome events soon to unfold.
From busy streets to haunting sanitariums, players will delve into carefully detailed field maps as they purchase items paramount to their quest, investigate supernatural happenings, and battle stygian monstrosities.

The easy to learn, difficult to master Psycho Sigil battle system combines traditional turn-based Japanese RPG strategy with twitch-trigger reaction time in order to maximize the potential of attacks, keeping players on their toes with every encounter. Players can embrace the darkness within by using Fusion to call upon the abyss and fight fire with fire, harnessing the power of the darkness to hurl demons back from whence they came.

Interactions with the demonic will affect the heroes’ Sanity Points. If players lose too many Sanity Points, their allies will succumb to madness, gaining strength and losing composure. However, that boost in power might be just what is needed to turn the tide in battle.

Returning to the helm as composer is Hirota Yoshitaka (of Shadows Hearts and Shadow Hearts: Covenant fame) to inject a sense of dread and eerie unease befitting of the atmosphere. And accompanying him is Akari Kaida of Breath of Fire 3, infusing a heavy dose of jazz into the Roaring Twenties setting.

“This is my second chance. Chances to make another game like this are rare, so please give me your support,” says lead game designer Matsuzo Machida.
With direction from Matsuzo Machida, character design by Miyako Kato and music and sound composed by Yoshitaka Hirota and Akari Kaida, Penny Blood promises to sink its claws into players as it revives the darker side of Japanese RPGs.
 
Trailer is up, basically it's "wild arms 6"since sony is not doing anything with their wild arms franchise:
 
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First Penny Blood trailer:
 
They tweeted Role Change stuff:


The role change system will allow you to let characters equip all sorts of ARMs and not just the type they start with. In doing so, this will add more options as to how you organize your party, as well as put characters in outfits they would normally not have access to.
 
Gadget stuff:

Armed Fantasia has a gadget system for exploring dungeons, and each character will offer a new gadget for the player to use. Protagonist Ingram will use bombs, which will explode after a set period of time.

This gadget will let you destroy walls with cracks in them, as well as break boulders. In doing so, you can create a platform to jump on so that you can reach higher places. Ingram can set multiple bombs at once, which will cause a bigger explosion. According to Kaneko’s Twitter, the team is in the middle of development a hookshot-type gadget as well.
 
Penny Blood Characters art:

Emilia:

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Suseri:
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Field test video:
 
Dev interview by Turn Based Lovers:

1st Turn: For established developers each with a basic concept of what you had planned based on the slew of information on the Kickstarter page, I am surprised no gaming company was willing to take you on as developer for either game. What exactly were they looking for when you say they needed “proof of concept”?


Armed Fantasia:
The era where JRPGs had the most influence has long passed. We think that even now, JRPGs retain what makes them interesting as a game genre.

I think perhaps what they wanted to see if JRPGs like ours were still necessary in today’s market. But more than that, they wanted to see if I had the passion necessary to make a JRPG, even though I hadn’t done so in over ten years.

At the very least, I think that I’ve proven I haven’t lost my passion towards game development.

Penny Blood: About 20 years have passed since we created our last original title, so I think publishers are really nervous about how many fans we actually have left, and whether or not we’re capable of creating new ones. Game consoles has also evolved, so the development costs and time needed to develop games have also increased. That’s just my opinion.

2nd Turn: With the concept of a combo Kickstarter being used, how much interaction is there between each development team? I know each team is doing their own game but is the Kickstarter the only thing connecting the two?


Armed Fantasia:
I feel like the two teams have a very good relationship. I very much respect Machida-san and his works.

We even talk about the contents of the games we’re developing now every now and again. It’s very invigorating, and we learn a lot from each other as creators.

I feel like our experiences with the Double Kickstarter as well as the awareness of each other will prove as a positive influence towards both Penny Blood and Armed Fantasia.

Penny Blood: The Kickstarter isn’t the only thing connecting us. It all started from a conversation between Kaneko-san and I, but the members of both teams are good friends with each other. With Armed Fantasia, Kaneko-san is truly attempting to create another old-school, classic JRPG. It’s a game everyone can enjoy, and the visuals look so bright and positive. My Penny Blood is a game that walks in the back alleys of JRPG-dom. (LOL) It’s a bit more aimed toward a niche, and it’s gloomy. But I believe this sun-and-moon relationship ended up doing great things for the Double Kickstarter campaign.


3rd Turn: How long have these titles been in the works? Has either development team hit any snags along the way? Do you have a release date?

Armed Fantasia:
I began having wild ideas about a plan like this a long, long time ago. But getting a company together and actually working on it? That started about a year ago.

Right now we’re still in the planning stages, so there really haven’t been any hardships yet. I feel like that’ll start when development starts.

I’d like to decide on the release date after the campaign ends and we see how much work we have to do. But I still have hope that we’ll be able to release it in 2025.


Penny Blood: The project properly began about one year ago. There have been a LOT of snags! We’re aiming to release the game in Spring 2025.

4th Turn: Forgive me as I like to ask this question for each game I interview about. Will there be element of romance in either game? I don’t mean as a focus, just in general. It’s okay if you don’t want to divulge.

Armed Fantasia:


I still haven’t finished the script, so I can’t give you a clear answer on this one.


However, I do believe that on their tough journey, our main characters will have to deal with many difficult types of emotions.

There might be time for that to turn into romance. I mean, most of our characters are still quite young.

Armed Fantasia’s story is about a gigantic secret that has been hidden from the world. However, it’s also a story about young people dealing with everyday hope and hardships. I hope you’ll enjoy seeing it unfold.

Penny Blood: There will be. But Penny Blood won’t depict two young people getting nervous about their first love. It’ll depict a romance experienced by adults who’ve already experienced multiple broken hearts and despair when it comes to love. I’m not even sure if I can call it proper romance…but that’s the relationship I plan to depict.

5th Turn: Could you give us any hints for the “complex addition” listed for the “stretch” goal you have listed at $1.5 million? The word “complex” kind of implies that is a big add-on. Am I mistaken?

Both:
That stretch goal has since been revealed – it’s for New Game Plus. If we reach it, a proper New Game Plus with all sorts of bells and whistles will be added to each game, so yes, it’s quite a complex addition.

6th Turn: Not only did you clear your initial goal of $750,000, but you also cleared the next stretch goal of one million in just two days. Are you surprised and/or elated at all by this?

Armed Fantasia:


I was really surprised. Honestly, I didn’t think it would reach that high in such little time. For that, we have to thank our backers from around the world. Thank you all so very much.

However, at the same time, all we’ve reached is the minimum goal, and one of the first stretch goals. That means development can begin, but it’ll have a very limited amount of game systems and game volume. This means I won’t be able to deliver to you all the Armed Fantasia that I’ve been dreaming of.

I know it is a shameless request, but won’t you please help us get a bit closer to our ideal game? I very much believe that we can create something amazing here. So I’m asking again, please consider supporting our campaign!

Penny Blood: I was really surprised. I expected that we would reach our minimum goal eventually, but I never thought it would happen so quickly. I don’t have the words to properly thank everyone who’s given us their support.

7th Turn: How many languages are planned besides Japanese and English? Will the game be fully-voiced? If so, what languages?

Both:
Initially, we plan to localize the games in EFIGSJ [English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese], but depending on the success of the campaign, we may look into other languages. Full voice will also depend on the overall success of the campaign.

8th Turn: I know each team is probably very busy but what games are they playing if any? What games are you looking forward to?

Armed Fantasia:


Games are a necessity on not only my days off, but even during work hours. I’m a game fan, just like I always have been.


Even before the campaign started, I’ve been very busy, so I haven’t been able to keep up with all of the latest titles. I still have a sealed copy of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 sitting knocked over on the corner of the desk I work from. I kinda feel sad for it.

I’d love to get to play it soon, though!

Penny Blood: Animal Crossing. I still haven’t played much of Happy Home Paradise, though, so I intend to do a deep dive into it when I get some time.

9th Turn: This question may be getting ahead of things, but I would like to ask anyway. Are the games essentially standalone, respectively? In other words, are any sequels planned should they do well or do you feel you will finish each story in one’s respective game?

Armed Fantasia:



I’d like this story to be complete within this one game. I’m not thinking about any sequels at the moment.

I’m putting my all into Armed Fantasia. Forget sequels, I’m working so hard thinking it might be the last game I ever develop.

Also, no characters from the Wild ARMs series will be making an appearance in this game. And one of the reasons for that is because we’ve dedicated ourselves to making a story that even new players can enjoy.

Penny Blood: I hope it’ll become popular enough that we can turn it into a series, but currently I’m planning for it to have a proper ending so that it won’t necessarily need a sequel. I am planning to write a short story that takes place after the game, though, so if we’re lucky, a sequel may be born eventually.

10th Turn: Knowing that these games are essentially spiritual successors to Wild Arms and Shadow Hearts respectively, do any original development members like the composers feel any sentimentality while working on the games?


Armed Fantasia:


Since this is a spiritual successor, there isn’t really anything specific from the past that we’re keeping in mind. Armed Fantasia is really about what I currently want to make, the story I want to tell.

If there’s anything to be sentimental about, it would be the fact that my style is prominent in the work.

I have old friends in our development staff, for sure. But I also have made lots of new friends as well.

And with the power of the old and the new combined, we’re going to do our best to bring the best of the 90s JRPG feel into the modern era. That’s our ideal for Armed Fantasia!


Penny Blood: I think sentimentality is part of it. But we’re all trying something new with this game, so we believe that Penny Blood will be able to stand on its own as something completely different from the previous series.
 
Alicia field test video:
 
New Party characters:
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More Characters stuff:

Ingram Goodweather

  • He lost his parents from a young age and took care of his grandfather. However, after the death of his grandfather, he started to travel in order to fulfill his promise with a childhood friend. Ingram looks things that are interesting and hates bad things. He is quick to make decisions when he needs to. He uses gun-type ARMs and his Gadget is a bomb. His favorite toy is a magnetic doll with interchangeable arms and legs.
Alicia Fairhead

  • She is the only daughter of the former leader of the Order of the Sacred Key, and she is also a part of the group. She only recently got a promotion, and believes in the justice and ideals of the Order. Despite her status as a noble, she is a bright and amiable person. She uses tall spear-like ARMs in battle, and her Gadget is unknown. She likes to play basketball and she is the center. Despite that, she is only 162 centimeters tall.
Euclid Sturges

  • Euclid is Ingram’s childhood friend but they briefly lost contact when his parents moved. In order to fulfill a promise, he returns as a Pathfinder. He is a sarcastic realist, but he is also a bit of a romantic, seeing how much he treasures his childhood promise. He uses staff-like ARMs and his Gadget is unknown. In his spare time, he likes to mess with machines, and then take a long bath, and then read books, and then fall asleep.
Mercedes Rosenberg

  • Mercedes is from an ancient line of alchemists, which has even more history than the Order of the Sacred Key. Though Mercedes had a bright future, she lost her entire family and townspeople in a massacre that left her as the sole survivor. Underneath her sophisticated exterior, she bears a strong desire for vengeance. She is self-righteous and approaches everything as something to do after her revenge but somehow, she unconsciously does things that end up helping others. Alicia uses cannon-like ARMs that can hit multiple enemies or focus on a single target. She is so into tall and handsome men she could kill them.
Sigurd Geiermeier

  • Sigurd is formerly from the Order and worked to hunt down heretics who used ARMs for evil. However, a certain incident made him part ways from the church and there is now a bounty on his head. He always gives off the air of an injured animal, and he avoids associating with others. However, he is secretly hot-blooded towards people he trusts. He uses sword-like ARMs, with a fighting style that focuses more on speed and technique. Sigurd is best in one-on-one fights. He likes to eat salmon ochazuke with a bit of wasabi and doesn’t like sour dried plums.
Soleil Ainsley

  • Soleil is part of a group of monster hunters who lives in a hidden village on the outskirts. She just wanted to live a peaceful life but her uncle sent her out into the wilderness to make her see more of the world. She has a careful and introverted personality. In order to avoid conflict with the party, she does not say a lot. But when she wants to say something difficult, she says it under the pretense that she is translating for Strisc. She uses gauntlet-type ARMs and martial arts, and she can apply status ailments. Soleil likes jelly beans and marbled chocolate.
Strisc

  • An Izuna, which is a species commonly found in this world’s forests. It does not really get along with people, but it is friends with Soleil and they are always together. It understands human speech but can’t speak it. Strisc can get items or activate distant switches on Soleil’s orders.
 
New videos and steam coming up on September 30 at 6:00 a.m. PT / 9:00 a.m. ET / 22:00 JST



 
New Dev trailer:
 
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