Another month has come and gone which means we get another update. The team behind Armed Fantasia To The End Of The Wilderness has done a great job of keeping fans in the loop. In this update, we get some different development insights and some design images. So let’s get into the update.
Ishii, the Chief Director of Armed Fantasia started by greeting fans and saying this:
“Hello everyone. I’m Ishii, the chief director of Armed Fantasia. For some reason I’ve been roped into writing this update. It isn’t because I’m taking responsibility for forgetting to request a Halloween illustration or anything. That isn’t it, okay? It’s just not.”
Concept Art & White Models
In regards to the gadgets and dungeon gimmicks of Armed Fantasia To The End Of The Wilderness, this was what they had to say:
“Recently, we got some art for switches that will respond to bomb and knife-type gadgets. The movements the switches make when they react to the gadgets will be mechanical and pretty entertaining. As development has continued, we’ve implemented more gimmicks into the dungeons. As Sekiya reported in last month’s update, the familiar nature of solving these gimmicks really makes the game feel like a spiritual successor.”
For people who might not remember Armed Fantasia To The End Of The Wilderness is billed as the spiritual successor to the Wild Arms series. In a world where these are becoming more and more prevalent, I welcome all spiritual successors. There are many great games that the new generations should experience in one form or another.
Main Scenario
The main scenario is still currently being written and it is well underway. So when it came to briefly mentioning the writing this is what was said:
“Still writing. Suffering at a good pace. (Going to keep using this until it starts grating on us). The sound of typing on the keyboard just keeps echoing from Kaneko’s seat. Just when I thought it had finally stopped, I went to the bathroom and came back out to hear it echoing again. Aside from necessary meetings, we both often go entire days in silence. Since he’s writing a lot, it must mean he’s in the zone, so I’m looking forward to my first read before we start the storyboarding. ONLY the first read, though.”
It seems the team is working hard to make sure the story is as good as it can be. With the pressure of it being a spiritual successor to the legendary Wild Arms series, I can understand why.
Storyboards
This month Ishii briefly talks about the current state of the Armed Fantasia storyboard process. He decided to say this:
“We’re still working on event storyboards. Unfortunately, no higher power exists above my seat. (See the September 2023 update for more info). Nothing that convenient. When I look up at the ceiling, I’m usually thinking something like “Okay, maybe if we do this, we’ll be able to implement this well.” The team works on figuring out what’s actually necessary to implement everything, but if I don’t think about things properly while I’m working on the storyboards, I’ll basically be creating a hellscape for the team, so I try to give them as many answers as possible.”
Character Design
We got some insight into the characters, 3D models, and field designs in Armed Fantasia. This is what was shared with us:
“We’re still working on character designs, 3D models, and animations. The field animations are directly connected to how the gameplay feels, and we’re really thankful to bee tribe for fulfilling our requests so quickly. Just the other day, we sent out some detailed requests regarding the run animation, and they quickly fixed everything up. Thanks to that, the running now feels speedy but also easy to control.”
Then they jumped into some discussion about the Kaiju (Anomalies) and this is what was said:
“We’re still working on the kaiju designs. Due to the situation, we’ve been going through bee tribe and requesting some kaiju design work from some outside designers. I’m secretly excited for the new creations since they’ll be filled with lots of little things that wouldn’t have existed in my design alone. There’s still some discussion regarding the last boss that’s going on among certain parties, but the last boss is really cute!”
Arm’s Design
The team provided us with some images of some arms in Armed Fantasia To The End Of The Wilderness. In addition to the designs they wanted to say this:
“Society’s in full Halloween mode right now, so a lot of things have become purple and orange, but what comes to your mind when you think of Halloween? Pumpkins, of course. Today, we’ll be showing you a design of something that’d be perfect for carving up a pumpkin: the Katana ARM! (Extremely forced segway).”
Katana ARM Design
We’re creating a model based on the design art. The blade of the katana has a sheath, so it won’t always be exposed.
It’ll also have a transformation gimmick to it. The transformation gimmick may seem a bit low-key, but we intend to add an awesome effect that’ll make it spin around, so please look forward to that. That concludes our update for this month. The days are getting colder, so please take care of yourselves!”
Wrap-Up
As I said the teams, WILD BUNCH Productions and bee tribe Digital Studio have done a great job with updates. Each update for Armed Fantasia continues to describe its process and provide consistently updated information in each update. Sometimes Kickstarter-funded games don’t do a good job here and go months here and there with not much information. These teams do a great job and I look forward to seeing the final product.
