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Sakura Note trailer elicits tears of nostalgia
The trailer for Audio Inc.'s new DS game Sakura Note leans heavily on the "nostalgia" angle, showing images of Japanese kids on summer vacation, running around town to the sounds of cicadas and a somber Nobuo Uematsu piece. Even the gameplay description, which refers to "simple action buttons," is a callback to the Famicom era.The in-game footage, with its combination of lush, hand-drawn backgrounds and pixelated sprites, makes us nostalgic -- for Audio's last game, Contact. This is the first real look we've had at the new game, and we're glad to see it's as lovely as the artwork.As for the gameplay itself, it features segments in which you control a cat or a dog, and includes some mechanic involving collecting a boss's tears.
Contact creator's next game: 'Sakura Note'
Marvelous Entertainment revealed Contact director Akira Ueda's next project, Sakura Note, with a teaser web site. According to 1UP's summary of a Famitsu preview of the game, the game involves two mysterious sakura trees in two towns. One is blooming late in the year, and the other is dying. This is somehow connected to a new arrival in your neighborhood, and subsequent attacks against her by ghosts. In order to solve these two mysteries, you explore the nostalgic scenery of two neighboring towns, "talking to people and unlocking new story episodes as you go along." The game is being created by an all-star team. As on Level-5's Fantasy Life, Nobuo Uematsu and Hideo Minaba are contributing music and character design, respectively. Kingdom Hearts' Kazushige Nojima is writing the story, and Half-Minute Hero producer Kenichiro Takagi is producing. Sakura Note will be out in Japan November 5.
