With its release date of October 4th confirmed by Famitsu today, comes a flood of information on Archaic Sealed Heat for the Nintendo DS. Developed by Mistwalker, headed by the "Father of Final Fantasy" Hironobu Sakaguchi, known for his work on Xbox 360's Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey , ASH (for short) is a strategy RPG that has been building a lot of hype amongst the community ever since its announcement way, way back.
Nintendo's official site for the title now features more content than last reported. With two sections so far - "Story" and "Character", the website features a sort of prologue of the story as well as various character portraits and info on some of the classes featured in the game.
Here's a quick rundown of the "Story" section, by yours truly:
"In the 112nd Year of the Continent, September, lies the kingdom Millinear, surrounded by lush greenery.
The day the Princess Aisya turned 17, a ceremony for the royal succession was held.
The Regent Bullnequ, who nurtured Aisya after the passing of the last king,
wished more than anyone else that Aisya, now that she had matured, would take up the throne of the kingdom.
And there, at the ceremony of the nation, Aisya and Bullnequ, as well as her citizens cheered on.
As she was about to receive the ceremonial artifact, the armband of Millinear, things turned for the worse.
All of a sudden, a heretofore unseen giant wyrm, covered in flames, appeared out of the sky and attacked the kingdom.
The cheering turned to screams, and the beast's unearthly sounds echoed throughout the land.
A castle shattered and destroyed by flames, the noblemen of the House preparing for their deaths, and voices overshadowed by the fire.
Aisya looks on the scene, lost for words.
All that is left is destruction and ash.
As ash falls from the blue sky and covers the land like snowflowers, a wind blows, sweeping the ash away. As she sees this, Aisya is taken to despair.
She puts on the only thing left from the fire, the armband of Millinear, and returns to the castle, where beasts born of the flames attack her.
There, she finds Bullnequ and her other companions, reborn with the body of ash, surrounding to aid her.
Aisya then decides to embark on a journey to uncover the mystery of the fiery wyrm and to find a way to return the peoples' body from ash, the warriors of ash following close behind her."
Phew! That was one long translation! Here's hoping readers appreciated all that work...
The other section contains character information, including some of the classes that help out the team. So far out of the ten slots seemingly available on the site, four of the characters are revealed - Aisya, Bullnequ, Dan, and Emu. And out of the seven slots available for classes, there are five filled up so far - the white and black mages, the "itemer", the battler, and the stealer.
The title looks to be a solid strategy RPG, with an epic story and characters, on top of a gameplay that looks to utilise class management for its battling.
Importers beware! This title will utilise a lot of text, but does anyone listen to my advice anyway when it comes to AAA titles? A stateside release is still unconfirmed, but it is undoubtedly being prepped for release down the road.
Nintendo's official site for the title now features more content than last reported. With two sections so far - "Story" and "Character", the website features a sort of prologue of the story as well as various character portraits and info on some of the classes featured in the game.
Here's a quick rundown of the "Story" section, by yours truly:
"In the 112nd Year of the Continent, September, lies the kingdom Millinear, surrounded by lush greenery.
The day the Princess Aisya turned 17, a ceremony for the royal succession was held.
The Regent Bullnequ, who nurtured Aisya after the passing of the last king,
wished more than anyone else that Aisya, now that she had matured, would take up the throne of the kingdom.
And there, at the ceremony of the nation, Aisya and Bullnequ, as well as her citizens cheered on.
As she was about to receive the ceremonial artifact, the armband of Millinear, things turned for the worse.
All of a sudden, a heretofore unseen giant wyrm, covered in flames, appeared out of the sky and attacked the kingdom.
The cheering turned to screams, and the beast's unearthly sounds echoed throughout the land.
A castle shattered and destroyed by flames, the noblemen of the House preparing for their deaths, and voices overshadowed by the fire.
Aisya looks on the scene, lost for words.
All that is left is destruction and ash.
As ash falls from the blue sky and covers the land like snowflowers, a wind blows, sweeping the ash away. As she sees this, Aisya is taken to despair.
She puts on the only thing left from the fire, the armband of Millinear, and returns to the castle, where beasts born of the flames attack her.
There, she finds Bullnequ and her other companions, reborn with the body of ash, surrounding to aid her.
Aisya then decides to embark on a journey to uncover the mystery of the fiery wyrm and to find a way to return the peoples' body from ash, the warriors of ash following close behind her."
Phew! That was one long translation! Here's hoping readers appreciated all that work...
The other section contains character information, including some of the classes that help out the team. So far out of the ten slots seemingly available on the site, four of the characters are revealed - Aisya, Bullnequ, Dan, and Emu. And out of the seven slots available for classes, there are five filled up so far - the white and black mages, the "itemer", the battler, and the stealer.
The title looks to be a solid strategy RPG, with an epic story and characters, on top of a gameplay that looks to utilise class management for its battling.
Importers beware! This title will utilise a lot of text, but does anyone listen to my advice anyway when it comes to AAA titles? A stateside release is still unconfirmed, but it is undoubtedly being prepped for release down the road.
