New details regarding Project Setsuna, the upcoming console Japanese role-playing game from Square Enix, have been revealed.
In an interview with Famitsu (as translated by Siliconera), Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda confirmed that the game will be themed around "setsunasa," the Japanese word for sadness or sorrow.
Additionally, Matsuda shed some light on the game's developer, Tokyo RPG Factory, which is made up of external developers, some of which are freelancers. Development time isn't expected to go on forever, as Square is anticipating a 2016 release. Should Project Setsuna release to much success, the publisher will consider turning it into a fully-fledged franchise.
"It’s important to create new IPs, but creating big IPs is difficult…" Matsuda said. "Having been looking at the game industry up until now, it’s quite common to see [a video game series] take the form of a trilogy. In that sense, we need to have at least three [titles] before knowing whether it will continue growing or not."
Project Setsuna was announced during Square's E3 press conference last month. Details are still scarce, but based on the sliver of concept art we've seen thus far, there's plenty of reason for JRPG fans to be excited.
Plus, if Square can actually deliver an RPG one year after its announcement, we may finally be seeing a new philosophy at the company, where 5+ year-long development cycles are a thing of the past. Am I just being overly optimistic? Maybe. I just really want Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III. Like, right now.
