nipponichisoftware

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  • Dragoneer's Aria character designer speaks out

    by 
    Nick Doerr
    Nick Doerr
    08.08.2007

    HitMaker's character designer, Juno Jeong, sat down for the latest interview with GameSpot who have had an ongoing set of reactions from the staff of the upcoming game Dragoneer's Aria. Being from Korea, Jeong talks about the difficulty in becoming a console game developer and how this is game has become such an honor for him to work on (which we can also assume means he's put a lot of work into these characters). It has been three years since he's gotten to work as an illustrator, after all.Jeong is very interested in classic RPG's like Dragoneer's Aria. He said that "the scenario and game system are loyal to the basics, but they bring out the depth of the game itself. I think that's the biggest anticipation I have for the game." He didn't get to work directly alongside the rest of the development team, so he does wish he had that experience to fall back on, but he seems excited enough about the game to merit our interest as well! GameSpot will have an updated interview, featuring HitMaker's director, in the coming days.

  • Dragoneer's Aria invites you to learn some Dragon Skills

    by 
    Nick Doerr
    Nick Doerr
    08.02.2007

    Nippon Ichi Software apparently found it prudent to release a bunch of little clips about their upcoming title Dragoneer's Aria, just to tutorial potential players before its release. While not overly complicated, it's nice to see some of the features the game will possess (we just hope we can turn off the voice acting, since we don't really care to hear someone say "Burning Blade!" every battle). The above video details "Dragon Skills" which are essentially attack skills gained by equipping certain orbs onto whatever character you want. Think of the orbs from the Suikoden games and you'll get the idea -- fairly open-ended with your choices, but each character has an obvious affinity for one over another. Who's excited to pick this one up? It's definitely a departure from NIS's classic-looking 2D titles.

  • What other RPG studios are plotting PS3 releases? Where's White Knight Story?

    by 
    Nick Doerr
    Nick Doerr
    06.27.2007

    This is a great bit of news for anyone out there who has been itching for some next-gen role-playing action, but like to stay away from the "MTV of RPG: Final Fantasy" stuff. A bunch of Japanese developers sat down and discussed their plans for now regarding the PS3 and you may be happy to know that a lot of studios have started moving on to the new console. We'd talk about the bits mentioned on The Last Remnant or the Final Fantasy XIII games, but it's all stuff we've heard. With that in mind, we'll go on to more obscure titles and studios.Level 5 has remained hush on their upcoming RPG White Knight Story ever since the showing at the Tokyo Game Show last year, but they've finally issued a statement on the game and what we can expect at E3. Level 5's president Hino Akihiro says their development is progressing well and "should be able to show everyone something really soon." In addition to that, he said the graphical quality shown at TGS is just a taste of what's to come. We're fairly sure he's referring to the scope of the enemies and places in the game. We recall hearing about a giant turtle with a city on its back?Other studios voiced their thoughts and plans also. Gust, makers of the Atelier games as well as Ar Tonelico, have new games currently in development. It should be noted that Gust and Banpresto are finishing up Ar Tonelico 2 for the PS2, but there's no word on whether or not it will come to America. If Nippon Ichi Studios is nice, they'll bring it over even though it'll probably stay on the PS2. Please! It was an amazing first game. We gush, but we were moved by it somehow. Other studios working on titles include: Takuyo, Namco Bandai, Hudson, Sunrise Interactive and of course, Nippon Ichi. We'll keep our eyes peeled for any info on their games because we loves us our RPGs.