Famitsu this week has first details on Exist Archive: The Other Side of the Sky, Spike Chunsoft and tri-Ace‘s newly announced RPG for PlayStation 4 and PS Vita.
Exist Archive is set in modern day Tokyo, as well as on another planet called “Protolexa.” The 12 young protagonists are soul-carrying evil gods who become involved in the gods’ quarrels.
The game’s main element is dungeon exploration. You’ll explore dungeons in a side-view format as chibi-size 3D characters and can use skills such as dashing and jumping to solve puzzles to proceed. Enemies are not random—they appear on screen before battle. You can gain the upper hand by attacking them before entering battle.
The “Active Chain Battle” system lets up to four characters participate in battle. Each party member is assigned to the Circle, X, Square, or Triangle button. Pressing the button tied to the corresponding character carries out an attack. By thinking about the order you’re attacking in and chaining moves together skillfully, you can up your battle score and increase the drop rate of valuable items.
During battle, you can position your characters in the front or back rows. The front row increases your attack power, but makes you more likely to be attacked. The back row lowers your attack power, but makes you less likely to be attacked. It’s possible to rotate between rows.
The power of the evil gods dwells within the 12 heroes, and by releasing it, you can unleash a powerful attack.
The following characters are introduced:
- Kanata Kujou (voiced by Ryota Osaka)
- Ranze Miwakawa (voiced by Aya Endo)
- Mayura Tsukishiro (voiced by Ai Kayano)
- Tokihisa Kiriya (voiced by Tetsuya Kakihara)
The following bits are from Famitsu’s interview with the developers:
- The keyword is “sharp.” This is not your typical rule of right-type story.
- One important choice you have to make in the game is who to send back to Earth and the order you send them back in will change what happens as you reach the end of the game.
- The game will take 40 to 50 hours to clear. There are a number of side elements like extra dungeons available after you finish the game.
- There is a boss battle time attack online element.
The game’s staff is as follows:
- Producer: Yuichiro Saito
- R&D Lead Programmer: Yoshiharu Gotanda
- Director and Scenario: Masaki Norimoto
- Composer: Motoi Sakuraba
- Character Designer: Mino Taro
- Development: tri-Ace
Exist Archive is due out for PlayStation 4 and PS Vita in Japan in 2015.
Thanks, Games Talk.
Update: Some more details have come out, via Sokuho@Hokanko:
Story
12 people from the modern world die in an explosion and end up on the alien planet of Protolexa, which is a ring-forming mass that surrounds a huge structure and appears to be some sort of afterlife.
Characters
- Kanata Kujou (voiced by Ryota Osaka) – The protagonist. He was born into a wealthy family, but his parents arrange him an engagement to Ranze Kamikawa.
- Ranze Miwakawa (voiced by Aya Endo) – A girl born into a wealthy family who own a dojo. She has been trying to live up to her parents’ expectations, but when she involved in the explosion incident with Kanata, she reveals her true nature on the verge of death.
- Mayura Tsukishiro (voiced by Ai Kayano) – A girl with white hair the same as Kanata who meets him in Protolexa. She has four tails.
- Tokihisa Kiriya (voiced by Tetsuya Kakihara) – He appears to be a delinquent at first glance. He’s blunt, but there’s also a side to him that cares about his friends.
System
It’s a side-view RPG. That said, given you’re moving horizontally, you can move both forward and backward in dungeons.
Active Chain Battles
THe LR button (PS Vita) activates “Attack Rotation,” which switches characters between the front and back rows.
The power of the evil gods that dwells within the 12 heroes which can be used to unleash a powerful attack is called “Demon’s Greed.”
Interview Tidbits
As a group occupied by the spirit of an evil god, the 12 heroes that carry that power are transferred to the alien world by its guardian deity Amatsume, and they become involved in the gods’ quarrels. Among them are those that want to return to earth, and those who are fine with things as they are.
There is also a third power that appears.
Development is 75 percent complete.