JRPGs continue to thrive, but fans still long for the days with great stories, cute characters, and fun turn-based battles of the PlayStation days in the 90s, such as Final Fantasy IX or Dragon Quest VI. Now a group of those fans are making their own classic 90s-style JRPG, Guardians of Arcadia. More details below.
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Guardians of Arcadia (which sadly is not a fan-made sequel to classic SEGA RPG Skies of Arcadia) tells the story of siblings Hikaru and Aki and their attempts, alongside a group of other colourful characters, to put an end to the sinister plot of General Nero who has been terrorising the land of Baikal with his advanced weapons.
Developer Fabula Epica (great name) want to create the best and most nostalgic JRPG around, so to that end they've been researching what players actually want to see from this type of game. From the press release:
"During their soul-searching mission, they unearthed past consumer surveys, conducted new research, re-read every game review, listened to lots of passionate pleas and opinions from gamers and re-played through many well known game of the genre. From this introspection and open-minded search for a fresh perspective, Guardians of Arcadia was born."
The game features a fully explorable open world seemingly in style of classic Final Fantasy games, which can be explored with a range of vehicles. Battles are all turn-based and rely on exploiting an enemy's weakness. It's meant to be sweet, playable by anyone, and evoke feelings of playing those classic PlayStation JRPGs for the first time.
There's a trailer below. It certainly looks very sweet, and we're hopeful it'll recapture those wonderful nostalgic memories just as well as simply making a great JRPG, especially after Final Fantasy IX made us cry earlier this year. True story.
Guardians of Arcadia has a release date of Early 2018 on PC via Steam or the Windows 10 Store and Xbox One.
