quote Wikipedia: Information

The game was previously known as Project Ray, and was known to exist as early as September 4, 2007. Hiroyuki Kanemaru who is the director of Fantasia, previously worked at Telenet Japan and then moved to Namco Tales Studio, where he worked as scenario script director and level concept designer on Tales of Symphonia. Kanemaru stated that the then called Project Ray would be influenced by old-school RPGs from systems such as the PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16.

Project Ray was also shown to exist with Project Salamander/Project S (now officially know as World Destruction) for the Nintendo DS.

quote Wikipedia: Plot

Arc Rise Fantasia is set in the empire of Meridian. Creatures called "Contaminant Dragons" are causing a lot of trouble as they pass the Meridian in flocks. If you kill one, the resulting explosion poisons the local area. When the empire receives word that a massive horde has its sights on the capital of Diamant, it immediately sends out an army to fight against them, including Bright, a cool and collected novice mercenary, and his friend Alse, the bright and beloved prince and second in line for the throne. Bright is severely injured during the battle, but is saved at the last minute by a girl named Ryphia, a naive and reserved girl who has secrets in her past, possesses the power to control "ley squalls," naturally-occurring storms of magic that usually take the form of luminous rain. And another character named Adele, a Diamant magic instructor who seems to care about fashion just as much as her light-based offensive spells.

quote Wikipedia: Gameplay

The game is a turn-based RPG. There will be three-character parties, with a single AP gauge being shared by the team, which empties as various actions are performed. Multiple attacks are possible, as well as massive attacks that will drain a lot of AP. If team members use the same skills, those skills will be increased. There are also summon beasts in the game called "Roguresu", who serve as the speakers on all worldly matters in the game, help teach you throughout the game. What they teach you is not clear at this time.

quote Wikipedia: Development Staff

Producer (Marvelous Entertainment Inc.): Hideyuki Mizutani
Development Producer (imageepoch): Ryoei Mikage
Director (imageepoch): Hiroyuki Kanemaru (Various Tales games including Tales of Symphonia)
Scenario: Takumi Miyajima (Tales of the Abyss)
Composition/Music Director: Yasunori Mitsuda
Main Character Original Design: Kenichi Yoshida (Eureka 7)
Roguresu Design: Shin Nagasawa (Bahamut Lagoon)

quote 1up

The Wii's lack of a traditional RPG library has been something of a running joke among gamers for the past year or so, but Marvelous Entertainment, at least, is doing its best to improve things. In the latest issue of Japanese magazine Weekly Famitsu, the publisher officially announced Arc Rise Fantasia, a brand new role-playing game for the Wii that looks to make anyone with a taste for high fantasy and Japan-style RPG gameplay stand up and pay attention.

A co-op production between Marvelous and Image Epoch (the outfit behind Nintendo DS cult hit Luminous Arc, pictured), Arc Rise Fantasia is set in the empire of Meridian, which has a bit of a lingering dragon problem. These so-called "contaminant dragons" are nothing but trouble, passing through the nation in great flocks; even if you kill one, the resulting explosion poisons the local area and causes it to look a bit like a Superfund site. When the empire receives word that a massive horde has its sights on the capital of Diamant, it immediately sends out an army to counteract them, including licensed mercenary Bright and his friend Alse, royal prince and second in line for the throne. Bright is severely hurt in the ensuing battle, but is saved at the last minute by a girl named Ryphia who possesses the power to control "ley squalls," naturally-occurring storms of magic that usually take the form of luminous rain. (Is all of this "fantasy" enough for you, then?)

Not much has been revealed about Arc Rise Fantasia's gameplay yet, other than the battles will employ an action point-based system that appears to be turn-based. This initial announcement focuses primarily on the game's characters -- Bright, cool and collected novice mercenary; Alse, bright and beloved prince of the kingdom; Ryphia, a naive and reserved girl who obviously has some secrets in her past; and Adele, a Diamant magic instructor who seems to care about frilly fashion just as much as her light-based offensive spells.

No release date has been announced for Arc Rise's Japanese release yet, but it seems a lock that RPG-starved Wii fans in North America are already eagerly waiting an English-language announcement.

quote GAF

Arc Rise Fantasia - Wii

- Image Epoch x Marvelous
- Traditional fantasy RPG
- Several Luminous Arc staffers on board
- Official Site will be open on 27th June
- Graphics style is similar to tri-Ace games
- All screenshots are widescreen

quote

- 3 character party
- The entire party shares an AP gauge, it depletes as actions are performed
- It is possible for a character to attack more than once, or for a character to use a strong single attack that will leave the other charactes with less AP to use
- If multiple characters use the same skill on the same enemies, the effectiveness of the skill will be increased
- There are summon beasts in the game called Roguresu. They serve as the speakers on all worldly matters in the game

Full scans up via GoNintendo:



Click for full sized scan.

They're purdy.

Well, since Tales of Symphonia and Luminous Arc are two of my favorite games in recent years, I'm really, really excited about this game. I have the feeling it will be very good, and fill a nice niche in my Wii collection. (Though I usually prefer turn-based games on handhelds)

^ That's why I promoted that guy.

The game looks very pretty; I will try and spare one eye to keep on this game...

It's looking great. This screenshot, in particular, gets me very excited. It does have a very Tales/Tri-Ace feel to it, and although I've never played Luminous Arc, the developer seems more than competent. Seeing as the Wii is lacking in RPGs, this will definitely be a welcome addition.

looks interesting

I haven't played Luminous Arc, but it seemed to get pretty good reviews and the director worked on Tales of Symphonia, one of my favorite RPGs ever, so this should be pretty good! I've been craving a traditional turn-based JRPG so hopefully this will satisfy me. The screenshots look good to say the least!

Yes! We needed more RPGs.

Official site is open. Very barebones right now, though.

It appears it will be updated frequently though. Shame its in Japanese.

Hey Akira, are you going to submit a profile for this game?

Yeah probably, when I can get around to it.

Clearer Screen Shots Looks like they're all from the scan.





















Let me know if I need to rehost them.

GameGrep

This message was edited by Akira_EX on Jun 27 2008.

Looks good to me.

Now, I just hope we get this game outside of Japan.

Also from Ryoei Mikage's blog (via Duckroll at GAF)

quote

- The visuals you see in the magazine are only 70% complete and not final
- Currently all cutscenes have no facial motion and are rather lifeless
- The team is working very hard to improve the visuals and the lifeliness of the event scenes
- Next month they'll be announcing the voice cast for the game

- Image Epoch has 4 production lines now: Luminous Arc development team, World Destruction development team, Arc Rise Fantasia development and Unannounced game development team

- There are sprite teams and 3D teams within Image Epoch, and the sprite teams will continue to work on DS hardware, while the 3D teams will work on Wii and PSP hardware

The fact that it's turn based is slightly turning me off, but I'll keep and eye out for this game anyway.