Studio Archcraft's Project Exile planned for Q1 2008

by Jason Dobson { Oct 17th 2007 at 10:27AM }

Japanese-style role-playing games are hardly a rare commodity, offering players all the big hair and surfboard-sized swords they can handle. Japanese-style real time tactical RPGs on the other hand, not so much, though this is exactly how little known Montreal dev Studio Archcraft describes its long-in development Project Exile, which was this week picked up by publisher Graffiti Entertainment for release next year.

The JRTTRPG was originally announced several years ago as Black Sigil, and in 2004 was planned for release on the then-hopping GBA, though the project was eventually moved to Nintendo's touchable DS handheld, which we assume is its current platform of choice, but really who can be certain? A press release announcing the game's continued existence simply states that it's expected to ship for "a major video game system" in the first quarter of 2008. Honestly Archcraft, why all the mystery? Still, the game's early screenshots give off a warm Alundra feel, which is cause enough to keep this one on the ol' radar.

[Via press release]

Tags: Archcraft, Black Sigil, BlackSigil, japanese, JRPG, project exile, ProjectExile, rpg

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Rob @ Oct 17th 2007 10:42AM

they should make this game available for download over the PSN network, and keep the graphics the same, just upscale them to run at 1080p. Long live 2D console RPGs!

megaStryke @ Oct 17th 2007 11:00AM

Or NOT!

Jerk Face @ Oct 17th 2007 10:47AM

That gets me hot in a way I can't quite explain.

JodyAnthony @ Oct 17th 2007 10:49AM

ive been interested in this game since it was back on GBA. I'm glad it may actually finally come out. the graphics look great. real square snes feel.

seth davenport @ Oct 17th 2007 4:22PM

actually there's a good reason they have a SNES square feel - some of the backgrounds have been blatantly ripped off from old square games!

2nd from the top is from Final Fantasy III/VI (north american version).

I'm pretty sure 3rd from the bottom is from Seiken Dentetsu III but I'm not sure.

4th and 7th from the top remind me _very_ strongly of a remake of final fantasy II (japanese version) which I played a couple years ago. But I could be making that one up.

TwEE @ Oct 17th 2007 11:14AM

Reminds me of Chrono Trigger

Jonny @ Oct 17th 2007 12:13PM

Two words: Wii Ware

Square Enix Intern @ Oct 17th 2007 12:45PM

Agreed

Kevin the wolf @ Oct 17th 2007 12:48PM

This game looks like Seiken Densetsu 3. An that's a good thing.

gst @ Oct 17th 2007 2:59PM

as long as someone brought it up, I feel compelled to say that Alundra is incredibly underrated.
Feel free to accuse me of blasphemy, but I liked Alundra more than most of the 2-D Zelda games (being as Zelda is the nearly uncontested king of the whole dungeon-based action-RPG genre).
The puzzles were very well done and the characters were a bit more mature than in Zelda (though neither game takes itself too seriously I think).

Anyways, this game looks to be right up my alley. Despite how familiar it looks, I realize that this genre doesn't really see a lot of solid entries any more (which is sad). I'm looking forward to it.