A self-described Double Kickstarter project is about to begin, with original creators from both the Wild Arms and Shadow Heart franchises of JRPGs teaming up to create spiritual successors to their respective series, where hitting stretch goals for one will benefit the other.
WILD BUNCH Productions is a company founded by core members of the development team that gave us Wild Arms and is headed by original creator Akifumi Kaneko. They are working on a spiritual successor dubbed Armed Fantasia: To the End of the Wilderness. You can see a brief trailer for the title above.
YUKIKAZE is formed of creatives responsible for the grim Shadow Hearts games and is also led by that series' original creator, Matsuzo Machida. They want to create a new title, Penny Blood, with a similarly gothic aesthetic and sensibilities. You can check out some screenshots of it, courtesy of Nibel, below.
Both projects seek a combined mutual funding goal of $750,000, which will ensure a PC release of both games, with a PS5 release in the offing as a stretch goal. A novel Combo Meter has been introduced as well, and pledging to either game will cause it to fill, unlocking additional content for both projects.
The connective tissue of these projects is their cult status in the early PlayStation JRPG ecosystem, and so the pairing seems natural, and the mutually beneficial model they have adopted is super cool. We certainly can't think of anything else like it. The Kickstarter is slated to begin later today, and you can sign up to be notified and get in on the ground floor if you'd like.
What do you think of this Double Kickstarter project? Are you excited to so new titles inspired by Wild Arms, and Shadow Hearts? Partner up in the comments section below.
[source kickstarter.com, via twitter.com, gematsu.com]
Comments 12
These are two franchises I'd definitely like to see return in some way so I'll keep an eye on this. I won't be backing it as I've seen too many kickstarter disasters but I'll buy them if they actually release.
Anyone else remember Project Phoenix?
This might be the first pair of games I ever back, the Armed Fantasia graphics look so good and the fact that it's turn based is chef's kiss. There is further incentive for me as the backing price is supposed to be cheaper than what the games will launch for. These types of kickstarters aren't for funding the entire development costs for the game, but to show potential publishers that there is a market for the product they're developing. I'm going to guess this project makes over $4 million in the first week and will be happy to contribute towards it!
Armed Fantasia looks fantastic. It'll be a shame if the stretch goal isn't met and these get locked to PC.
@Kanji-Tatsumi Still annoyed at how scummy that was. And no one was eligible for a refund let alone a copy of that game the funds were actually used for.
This looks amazing! And it's turn-based strategy too? I need this on PS5!
This all sounds amazing, but there's absolutely no way you fund two games promising this much on something like $750k. Be interesting to see how this actually pans out.
So playstation is a stretch goal. I dont want to support if it is obly coming to pc
This is gonna be Fun. I hope they reach their Goal because I want Armed Fantasia
@ShogunRok
probably one of those deals where they're trying to show potential publishers the level of interest
That was honestly a good trailer, hopefully it gets funded but 750k seems way too low unless they already have some funding.
nice trailer. not much to complain about here. sure, the designs are a bit generic and we all know this is just a cg trailer, but if they are striving for a presentation on that level, it should be pretty great. BUT, it does look too ambitious for a crowdfunding campaign... they will need a significant budget to pull this off and i can see the production falling off a cliff. i mean, look at bloodstained... that was a very successful kickstarter and they barely managed to keep it all together... by comparison that was a much smaller scope than what we are seeing from this armed fantasia concept. so... i like what i see, but i am concerned about funding and potential hurdles during production. it won't be easy to live up to this high standard unless they have angel investors behind the scenes willing to give them a good sized budget in addition to the kickstarter (the crowdfunding aspect may just be a way to gauge interest, if nothing else).
To think these could've been Playstation exclusives, properly funded... but PS doesn't believe in JRPG's anymore, it seems.
Imagine reveals for this Wild Arms 6 and Shadow Hearts 4. Internet would've gone wild...
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