A few bits have surfaced on Square Enix's new Unreal Engine project that sees its debut in this week's Famitsu.
The project is revealed in an interview with Ryutaro Ichimura, who says that two years following the development of Dragon Quest IX, which he produced, he's "graduated" from the Dragon Quest team and is now working on a number of new titles. This original action RPG is one of those projects.
The game's platform has not been finalized, although the general idea is for it to be released on consoles. Depending on the timing, they may also look into a release on next generation platforms.
Famitsu shows just a few concept art pieces for the game. These include buildings that appear to be out of middle ages Europe, and middle ages European style characters.
Just from the looks, the game may appear to be "Westernish," but Ichimura says that it doesn't necessarily target overseas players. Rather, it's meant to represent a challenge where Japanese developers create an interesting game that is meant for worldwide release.
The development staff is working closely with overseas staff, though, as one concern is that the end result of a Japanese developer making a game set in an overseas environment might seem fake.
They're taking the approach of not forcing what they want to make into the game, but seeing what users want and going from there. For the past couple of years, they've been touring the world, conducting surveys of users, and redoing the specifications through test play. They're at the point where theY've finalized the basic research and technological aspects.
The game's core staff consists of around 35 people. Each area of development has just a few people. While the core staff has experience in RPGs, they need support from people with experience in action game development and network technology.
They'll be seeking out staff via a recruitment site which will open later this week.The new game is being developed internally at Square Enix under the eye of Ryutaro Ichimura. Ichimura's exact role on the game is unclear, but he's usually a producer.
While the game goes unnamed in the magazine, it will not be a Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy game.
In comments shared with Famitsu, Ichimura reveals that he and the game's staff traveled the world for the past two years and conducted user surveys to research art and gameplay direction for the game. They've finalized the basics.
Famitsu shows image art for what appears to be a main character, heroine, rival and boss. No solid details are provided, so these are just guesses.
It looks like Famitsu's reveal article is meant to be part of a staff solicitation to join the current core team of 35. Square Enix is looking for planners, programmers (network, 3D graphics, physics, animation) and designers (art, motion, VFX, background modeling and character modeling).
We'll likely get official announcement of the project and the job solicitation later this week.