Tokitowa - Time and Eternity (third person 2D/3D RPG, imageepoch, PS3) announced

[ULTROS!]

http://www.famitsu.com/news/201201/19008504.html
http://andriasang.com/comzoi/tokitowa_details/

More details on Tokitowa have surfaced from this week's issue of Weekly Famitsu via our usual source, Sokuho@Hokanko.

As detailed earlier, Tokitowa, which can be translated to English as "Time and Eternity," is a PS3 RPG that's being published by Namco Bandai Games and developed by Imageepoch and animation studio Satelight. The game is produced by Kay Hirono and Kensuke Tsukanaka, has character designs from Vofan and music from Yuzo Koshiro.

The game is set in Kamuza Kingdom, a nation formed when a prince, known as the Knight King, and a magic wielding princess married. The castle town floats on the water (I'm not sure if this means it's on an island or if it's actually floating on the water like a ship).

You play as that prince whose marriage formed the Kingdom. You're 18 years old, and even though you're married, you still haven't had your first kiss. The prince is meant to be named by the player, although he does have a voice actor, Tsubasa Yonaga.

The princess's name is Toki. Toki is 16 years old and always keeps Drake, her blue colored dragon-like pet, at her side. Toki is voiced by Kana Hanazawa.


In this image from the game's teaser site, Toki is the second girl from the left.
One of the big early talking points for the game appears to be its animation system. The game uses hand drawn 2D animation for main characters and enemies during movement throughout the world and in battle. This isn't an approximation of hand drawn artwork using cell shading -- it's actual hand drawn art. Backgrounds and other areas appear to be 3D.

Outside of these story and character details, Famitsu scored commentary from the various staff members along with Imageepoch CEO Ryoei Mikage. Here's what they had to say:

Kay Hirono (Producer, Namco Bandai)
The project has been in development for over two years. Hirono promises a completely new title that is full of new experiments.
Ryoei Mikage (CEO, Imageepoch)
Mikage said that he created this project plan long ago when he thought that he wanted to show 2D anime as is on a game system. The systems at the time were incapable of pulling this off. To get it to work on the PS3, they had to do many trials.
Vofan (Character Concept)
Vofan is from Taiwan, but loves Japanese games and anime. He started character design for the game in 2012. The themes for the game are "Love" and "Time."
Yuzo Koshiro (Sound Composer)
Yuzo says that when he was first shown the design doc, he was drawn to the game by Vofan's characters. The background art is also beautiful, he said. This is serving as inspiration for his composition.

Development on Tokitowa is currently 45%. In a blurb next to the percentage, a Namco Bandai PR person refers to the game as "the world's first HD animation RPG."

Code:

copied by neogaf thread, sorry for the laziness

[Mickeymac92]

The 2D/3D thing doesn't really mix well. And from my experience, Imageepoch's games tend to be prettier than they are fun...I'll keep an eye on this, but it probably won't be a big loss if it doesn't make it here.

[cj_iwakura]

My first Imageepoch game was Fate/Extra.

It had two things I like in an RPG: unique setting and innovative combat.

This has my interest.

[Danku]

"You play as that prince whose marriage formed the Kingdom. You're 18 years old, and even though you're married, you still haven't had your first kiss. The prince is meant to be named by the player, although he does have a voice actor, Tsubasa Yonaga."
I'm all for light hearted JRPG's...but come on.

[Yggdrasil]

*shrug* Sounds good to me, I'm interested.

[Kevadu]

"You play as that prince whose marriage formed the Kingdom. You're 18 years old, and even though you're married, you still haven't had your first kiss. The prince is meant to be named by the player, although he does have a voice actor, Tsubasa Yonaga."
I'm all for light hearted JRPG's...but come on.

I don't normally bitch about these things (and I play lots of Japanese games...), but yeah...that was like the first detail they revealed about the game.  What the hell?

[Bytor]

I'll try any game once....

[cj_iwakura]

"You play as that prince whose marriage formed the Kingdom. You're 18 years old, and even though you're married, you still haven't had your first kiss. The prince is meant to be named by the player, although he does have a voice actor, Tsubasa Yonaga."
I'm all for light hearted JRPG's...but come on.

I don't normally bitch about these things (and I play lots of Japanese games...), but yeah...that was like the first detail they revealed about the game.  What the hell?

Call me a silly romantic, but I like the plot.

[Aeolus]

I don't know why but I've been picking up Thousand Arms vibes from this.

Maybe it's just the 2D characters in 3D battles thing.

[Annubis]

I love that second image. That is one awesome style their using.

[Dice]

I said on Siliconera already: this will go either SUPER well, or be something people will want to FORGET.

They better integrate the animation reaaaaallly well, or I don't think it'll earn a pass.  Hell, it was bad enough in PSX days watching 2D sprites in 3D environments only rotate *some* of the time.

+1 for stupid plot fit for a virgin in his basement of anime toys/posters/n'shit.... unless they add some serious layers to it.  >_o

[Lard]

Well, at least it's something different.

[Dice]

Different doesn't mean good.

Imageepoch is kinda 'meh', a few titles aside.

I'm hoping for the best, but putting expectations neither here nor there.

[Lard]

Yeah, but it can't hurt either.

Variety is really lacking this gen.

[Dice]

Yeah, but it can't hurt either.

Variety is really lacking this gen.

Not really, it's just all staying it japan. :D