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| Liz Maas |
Introducing Beyond the Labyrinth and Frontier Gate
04.27.11 - 6:17 PM
In an interesting collaboration, Konami and Star Ocean developer tri-Ace announced not one, but two titles. One of them is a Nintendo 3DS title named Beyond the Labyrinth, a dungeon RPG whose director is tri-Ace's Takayuki Suguro (Valkyrie Profile 2, Resonance of Fate), and its producer is Konami's Shingo Mukaitouge.
There aren't many details at this point, other than a young, talkative girl shown in this week's Famitsu, who is central to the game's story. The game will get 'bright' visuals and focus on dungeon exploration. Beyond the Labyrinth is 60% complete and does not yet have a Japanese release date.
The second announcement is Frontier Gate for the PlayStation Portable. Unlike with Beyond the Labyrinth, the two companies provided far more information. Frontier Gate is an ad-hoc multiplayer RPG and already is said to have a Monster Hunter vibe, but with turn-based RPG battles. Players will be able to build up a 'boost AP' meter by using combos, and the meter can be used to perform special skills.
Story-wise, two frontiersmen have discovered a new 'frontier' area of the world which they fear many countries would fight over. Here they build a guild to explore the frontier, and your main characters are new recruits of this guild. The story depends on which parter character you select. There are 15 potential partner characters in total, though Famitsu introduced the first thee: A young black-haired man named Alettio who joins the guild at the same time as your main character, and carries a dual sword; Reinvout, who teaches the newcomers to the guild and has a single-handed sword; and Dizzy, a mace-wielding female adventurer. Playing with more (or all) of the partner characters will give you more of the complete story.
Frontier Gate was designed with multiplayer in mind. Over ad-hoc, three players can connect and play both a main character and a partner character for a maximum party of six. There is a single-player mode, but both multi- and single-layer take place in the same world. For example, if you make your partner character a healer, you may have more difficulty in single-player mode.
Players will be able to fully customize their main character including his or her face; they can also choose the partner character's weapons, outfit and other items.
Frontier Gate is 80% complete and will release sometime this year in Japan.
