Mistwalker, the studio headed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, today revealed some new details about its upcoming DS strategy title ASH (Archaic Sealed Heat). Marty is the princess of a wealthy industrial country, which is opposed by the Kingdom of Samnelshia. While her opinions and thoughts don't match with those of ASH's protagonist, Aisya, the two have the same aim and hence agree to travel together. Siekaven is a veteran mercenary. He possesses the ability to send multiple swords towards his foes. His personal history and relations with others are shrouded in mystery, though.

ASH allows the player to asemble five teams each featuring up to three characters. In battle, each trio has a certain amount of action points (AP) at their disposal. These APs are required to execute commands. Each turn, only a fixed amount of APs will be recovered automatically. During battle, players will control their party via the DS' touch screen, by entering commands when their character's turn comes up. The commands available in battle will change depending on the game's overall progression and a character's individual growth.

ASH will be available in Japan on October 4th for 5,800 yen ($49.01 US).

• Famitsu