It’s been around five years since Yuji Naka parted ways with SEGA and formed Prope. Since then, his games have mostly been small projects for download services and handhelds, as well as the strange Wii party game Let’s Tap. Now it looks like we may finally be getting a game fans of his old work can sink their teeth into: Rodea: The Sky Soldier. The game is meant to be a spiritual successor to NiGHTS, and looking at the trailer I see the inspiration. Take a look. If anything, the music is incredible.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg-xVn0vZSo[/youtube]
Rodea is not the game’s Japanese name, by the way. It’s full Japanese name is actually Tenkuu no Kishi Rodea. Rodea: The Sky Soldier is actually the game’s western trademark, which seems to indicate we’ll be getting a localization. Cross your fingers!
For further details, magazine scans, concept art and screen caps please check out SEGAbits.
. _. That trailer….it does have that NiGHTS feeling when you looked at it and more. DO WANT!
Awessome look like it is gona be a good story!!
Amazing Naka-San has done it!
Remember that two concepts for Nights before he was a Jester was a Bird or a Soldier…Naka has given us the Kiwi bird Ivy and now now the soldier!
very cool!
This game truly feels like the successor of Nights very nice!
I love coming to The Rodea Stadium… I mean The Sonic Stadium for Sonic News. 🙂
On another point… I’m pretty grateful for this news nontheless. It has a SLIGHT similarity to NiGHTS (I’m not denying it was inspired by NiGHTS, just saying he did good at also making it very original).
The game looks very interesting. 😀 Thanks, Nuckles.
Huh.
Looks really cool so far.
Be interesting to see where this game goes =)
NiGHTS, Sin & Punishment and Shadow of the Colossus with Anime-esque characters and (from what I can tell since I don’t speak Japanese) a JRPG-style storyline.
It’s like if NiGHTS and Sin & Punishment combined. I’m intrigued, but I need to see how it controls before getting fully on bored. The cursor mechanics looked strange to me.
That voice actor of Rodea..does sound really familiar..
Seeing this makes me want to play Spyro: Year of the Dragon again.
I like his aerial maneuvers a lot. I’ll definitely check this out if it comes our way. I don’t dig the characters too much though, but if it’s a decent game I’m sure they’ll grow on me. 🙂
The boss doesn’t look all that exciting to play, though the rest was awe-inspiring; this could be Yuji’s next big hit!
Kind of seems like the love child of Nights and Final Fantasy. Looks like a pretty good game!
The English title, apart from the colon deal, is a direct translation of the Japanese title, btw nux.
This looks really cool! I can’t wait to hear more about this!
Say, I know this game is not being made under Sega, but the guy in charge of the ones making this game, as well as the one in charge of this game, is Yuji Naka, who, needless to say, is one of the big three who was responsible for creating Sonic the Hedgehog, with Naka himself perhaps being the most recognized of the three. I forgot the names of the other two.
Still, he was a big part of creating Sonic, who was created to help Sega compete with Nintendo and their mascot, Mario back in the 90s.
That said, how much do you guys wanna bet that the Nintendo fans are, with one of Sonic’s creators making this game, call this a rip off of Kid Icarus: Uprising?
I’ve lost respect for Naka once he ditched Sonic.
Miyamoto is still loyal to his plumber.
I really want to like it, but we’ve seen so many games for the Wii which have movements like that and the controlls are a complete pain in the arse to opperate.
At the moment the term used has been “inspired” and the game in question has been “Sin and Punishment”. So I dun know.
I’m not really convinced. The story looks like it will be generic anime and the yellow line boosting seems like a repetitve feature. Still it’s still early days so hopefully they’ll be a playable version at E3 so we can get some verdicts down.
God, I CANNOT STAND THE CHEESY MUSIC. Less lyrics would be nice.
And it looks like generic anime crap that we’ve been getting from japan for a few years or so now.
It looks like it has a NiGHTS feel to it, but it’s not working for me. Because NiGHTS was actually good.
I like the curvy sky-dashing.
You talking to me, Nuckles?
Well, Sin and Punishment still a Nintendo franchise, if I recall correctly. So there could still be Nintendo fans finding ways to call this a Sin and Punishment: Star Successor rip off.
The controls looks pretty simple to me- Lock-on to a target with the pointer and shake to create a flying arc that carries you over to that point. You can lock-on to other targets as you’re on your set path, though it’s going to take some impressive reaction time and skill. Rodea will probably be able to run around on foot, too, considering the amount of groundspace we see in the trailers.
Color me interested. The game looks like a very fun and interesting platformer, and it could have some very interesting design. I already like it.
That….actually looks really cool. I can’t help but be reminded of Shadow by Rodea and Tails by Ion, but meh. Maybe I’ve been a Sonic fan too long to see anything else.
I can’t wait to hear more information about this. It looks like it could be good game. c:
The eyes…so moe!!But seriously,looks awesome! I hope it’s a lot easier to control than knights was for me. Interesting concept,game play looks fun.
Looks alot like Nights, but the colorful look reminds me a tiny bit of Sonic. I also see some Kid Icarus. I have been keeping up with it because dundunduh!!! I am a huge Nintendo fan.
Not that this isn’t awesome (yes, it SCREAMS NiGHTS as everyone else has said ^w^) but am I wrong in wanting a sequel to Skies of Arcadia?
This feels more like a cross between NiGHTS and Skies of Arcadia.
@Tentor
No, NiGHTS wasn’t all that good either. : /
@Tentor: Since anime is actually a very diverse art style when you’ve actually looked at it, and I hardly ever see a straight-out stereotypical anime still come out from a company unless the game is an actual anime spin-off or Project Diva, explain what ‘chu talkin’ ’bout.
@Tentor: Whoops! Make that ‘still’ turn into ‘-style game’, ‘kay?
Hmm… I wonder how long Sonic Team has left to stand a chance against Yuji Naka’s industry… If he releases continuous games such as this, I have a feeling Sonic Team is going to be digging for pocket change just to stay alive within the years to come…
OK, this game looks really fun. Like, really. I hope it’s as good as the first NiGHTS!
Dang it, Naka, why’d you have to leave Sega? This could have been a NiGHTS game!
Feels like a mix between Klonoa and Nights.
I’m not sure how to feel about this. On one hand, my curiosity is definitely piqued by “a spiritual successor to NiGHTS” (I’m still pissed that they didn’t bother to do the tiny bit of localization that would be required for the PS2 remake). But on the other hand, the gameplay already looks like it could get pretty repetitive, and the character designs are hit-and-miss (I like Ion’s design, and Cecilia’s just meh, but Rodea looks like a generic steampunk catboy Deviantart creation). I guess I’ll wait and see how this unfolds.
But one thing that has me more interested than the game itself is the publisher – Kadokawa’s getting into game-publishing? I wonder if they’re gonna attempt to push their anime properties (Kyoto Animation’s lineup, Sgt. Frog, and Toaru Majutsu no Index, among others) into the gaming field.
Is the psone graphics a stylistic choice? This looks like some lost trailer for a game that should have come out ten years ago. I want more then anything to be excited about Naka and Prope, but I don’t see anything groundbreaking here. /cynicism
Any graphics that don’t look as if they belong on a PS3 or XBOX are now classified as Psone? Okay.
It’s not about graphics, anyway.
This looks like a very good game project.
Side Note: If Tails was taken seriously as a character and got his own game it may looks something like this 😛