Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi - new Exp. Inc dungeon RPG

[aweigh]

Yomi wo Saku Hana is a contemporary dark fantasy dungeon RPG set in 70s to 80s Tokyo
posted on 08.04.18 at 07:37 PM EDT by Sal Romano (@salromano)

image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Yomi-wo-Saku-Hana_2018_08-04-18_001-600x338.jpg




Experience shared more information about Yomi wo Saku Hana, its upcoming dungeon RPG for Xbox One, during its latest live stream.

Get the details below.

• Yomi wo Saku Hana is a dungeon RPG set in a fictional version of Tokyo sometime between 1970 and 1989. It is described as a contemporary dark fantasy set in a world with a theme of corruption.
• There are people who work in a huge dungeon that appeared in Musashino, Tokyo called “The Labyrinth Structure.” If you played Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy, Generation Xth, or Cross Blood Labyrinth, this should be easy to imagine.
• The country wants to hide the fact that there is a huge labyrinth inhabited by monsters. To that end, the government threatens and even falsifies peoples memories…

image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Yomi-wo-Saku-Hana_2018_08-04-18_002-600x338.jpg

• There is a reason The Labyrinth Structure made a leap to the contemporary when compared to titles like Demon Gaze and Stranger of Sword City. But passing through the converter to get to the dungeon makes things weird. While one should be transported into the dungeon as they usually appear, one for some reason undergoes a change (almost like a glitch), becoming an incomplete state where something is missing.
• People of all ages, occupation, and gender will join the adventure, from elementary school students to the elderly.
• Tests of talent are being conducted behind the scenes at public institutions such as schools and hospitals to discover various talented personnel.
• The company that the main characters belong to is EXP, a company on the verge of bankruptcy looking to make a turnaround.
• Since EXP is a small company that does not have the best personnel at its disposal, you must recruit personnel through special means, such as obtaining information from the country’s higher-ups through speculation and bribes, and interviewing without the country’s knowledge to steal the best personnel from other organizations.
• Here is a first look at the monsters. For the same reason as The Labyrinth Structure, the monsters are changed from the original forms you would expect.

image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Yomi-wo-Saku-Hana_2018_08-04-18_003-600x338.jpg





image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Yomi-wo-Saku-Hana_2018_08-04-18_004-600x338.jpg





image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Yomi-wo-Saku-Hana_2018_08-04-18_005-600x338.jpg

• Although types and abilities were correctly converted, their body textures differ due to a bug. Scavengers by nature must be downloaded as an insect with an exoskeleton design, but for some reason take on the form of an amphibian or reptile. This includes Treants made up of something other than wood, skeletons with the skin of an insect, mermen that look like a sea lion or walrus, wyverns with exoskeletons and insect wings, etc.
• Here is a labyrinth concept design. This dark dungeon was designed to make one feel a sense of torment or fear.

image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Yomi-wo-Saku-Hana_2018_08-04-18_006-600x338.jpg





image: https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Yomi-wo-Saku-Hana_2018_08-04-18_007-600x338.jpg

• While basic design ideas are being proposed, they have yet reach the modeling stage. However, since modeling methods have changed, Experience’s techniques and ability to create a sense of depth are said to be better than ever before.
• “Hana,” or “flower,” is a keyword and will be incorporated into the game in various ways.
• Currently, the dungeon designs are halfway complete.
• Hajime Chikami: “It is planned as an Xbox One exclusive, but if it doesn’t sell much, we might ask Sony and Nintendo to put it out. We’ll put it out somewhere even if we’re about to die. Development on PC is difficult at the current stage.”
• Hajime Chikami: “While I don’t know about the possibility of releasing the game on platforms other than Xbox One at the moment, we will release another title with the same systems since we were originally making a separate title with the same world at the same time with the PlayStation 4 in mind as a possible platform.”
• He also talked about a “new dungeon RPG project” and “another thing that’s somewhat unanimous; this project makes people think it is being done by the NG team.”

Read more at https://gematsu.com/2018/08/yomi-wo...g-set-in-70s-to-80s-tokyo#XmjL0EvfMebYXgqz.99

"

• The company that the main characters belong to is EXP, a company on the verge of bankruptcy looking to make a turnaround.
• Since EXP is a small company that does not have the best personnel at its disposal, you must recruit personnel through special means, such as obtaining information from the country’s higher-ups through speculation and bribes, and interviewing without the country’s knowledge to steal the best personnel from other organizations."
  

nice haha

EDIT:

"Hajime Chikami: “It is planned as an Xbox One exclusive, but if it doesn’t sell much, we might ask Sony and Nintendo to put it out. We’ll put it out somewhere even if we’re about to die. "

yikes!

 

[Reinhardt]

Development on PC is difficult at the current stage.

 

[Jacob]

agentorange
modern setting RPG, cool concept art too

 

[Rahdulan]

Yomi wo Saku Hana is a contemporary dark fantasy dungeon RPG set in 70s to 80s Tokyo

So EVIRRU ECONOMIKO BABURU will be the final boss? All nonsense aside, concept art looks good.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Looks great. Love that art. Exp. will probably getting my money with this one.

 

[Tiospo]

Very nice arts!

 

[Great Deceiver]

It is planned as an Xbox One exclusive

 

[Tse Tse Fly]

Japanese devs actually making an exclusive for freaking xbox one (and in what a genre!), for real? I'm really confused. Is it sponsored by Microsoft, as part of their plan to coquer Japan?

Haven't played any of their games yet, but I hope this one will find its way to PC sooner or later.

 

[aweigh]

Stranger of sword city was also an xbox 360 "exclusive' for its first few months. They seem to have some sort of contract with MS?

 

[Ysaye]

I have to admit when I read the following:

• The company that the main characters belong to is EXP, a company on the verge of bankruptcy looking to make a turnaround.

I thought it was referring to Experience Inc (the company making the game that also made Strangers and Operation Abyss / Babel). Glad that is not the case.....right? (The misinterpretation also makes the second bullet point interesting as well.....)

 

[L'Montes]

Japanese devs actually making an exclusive for freaking xbox one (and in what a genre!), for real? I'm really confused. Is it sponsored by Microsoft, as part of their plan to coquer Japan?

Haven't played any of their games yet, but I hope this one will find its way to PC sooner or later.

I remember reading one of those narratives about the early days of the Xbox (OG) and how they had a horrible time trying to make any connections in Japan, but one of their producers hit it off with one designer there who went on to make various exclusives for the Xbox (his parent company didn't feel the same, so they ported them to Sony platforms later).

The initial announcements for several Experience Inc games were all over Xbox One and kinda reminded me of that, like, why would you release there?

Re (try to ignore the fact it's Neogaf): https://www.neogaf.com/threads/experience-inc-has-multiple-xbox-one-titles-in-development-for-the-west.1200332/ -that was 2016

I like the art-style (and I actually really liked the less-anime version of Stranger's art too), but I'm worried by the time it goes to print (if it does) we'll have another Operation Babel instead on our hands.

 

[Werdna's Revenge]

Looks cool

 

[Lutte]

Japanese devs actually making an exclusive for freaking xbox one (and in what a genre!), for real? I'm really confused. Is it sponsored by Microsoft, as part of their plan to coquer Japan?

Haven't played any of their games yet, but I hope this one will find its way to PC sooner or later.

For some utterly batshit reason, many japanese companies decided that Microsoft was a good company to partner with despite making games that 1/ don't always sell that well internationally compared to local sales 2/ target audiences that tend not buy xbox
This has been ongoing since the 360 as others said. Even genres like shmups have xbox exclusives (like a large amount of CAVE's games like the latter DoDonPachi games), this company isn't the only one that made this insane decision. In the early days of 360 and PS3 there were a decent amount of jRPGs that were also released as 360 exclusives.
I'm guessing Microsoft must have spent a certain amount of money under the table buying corrupt execs and the likes to try to get into the japanese market but looking at the shitty xbox console sales there that spectacularly failed and just ensured that the devs who bought into this shit would not make much of a profit.

I thought the phenomenon had died off when the Xbox One came out but it looks like there are still some crazies out there. At least CAVE stopped caring about the xbox, their latest arcade ports were for PC and PS4. Now, please do release Saidaioujou on a console that doesn't know the RROD.

 

[Tse Tse Fly]

Regarding x360-exclusive jrpgs you mentioned, Lutte, recall that Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon games were published by Microsoft Game Studios (as wikipedia has it) as xbox 360 exclusives. I heard that release of those games (and some others) even helped Microsoft make the console relatively successful in Japan, selling more than 1.5 million units there. The Japanese are one of the most actively playing nations in the world, so it's not surprising that MS dreams of its consoles becoming successful in that country (I think that in the new console generation they will make another attempt to conquer the Japanese market).

 

[L'Montes]

There were multiple reasons to establish relationships there. Microsoft wants third-party support for their system, ideally, they want exclusives if they can get them. That's not particular to Microsoft of course, any console manufacturer wants that. Being able to have their platform successful in Japan is also reliant to some degree on being able to draw in local talent, who are possibly more in tune with the tastes of what people want nationally.

Getting the JP market without JP games seems like a tall order. There's a reputation of foreign games as being "poor" that's encapsulated by the expression: Youge, kuso-ge or "Western game, shit game." There's also a somewhat different culture there I guess, gaming-wise in terms of smaller living spaces, avoiding PC, using mobile stuff now, etc.

The person I was referring to above was Tomonobu Itagaki, who was the lead on Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive - he apparently hit it off with the Microsoft rep in the OG Xbox days. Note that despite creating *his* version for the Xbox, Tecmo was still having the B-team get ports out of the games he made for Sony (gotta keep those actual JP-relationships tight I guess?).

Microsoft, for whatever their other faults, understood the importance of trying to have some variety in offerings on their consoles. They went to Japan with their checkbook, and they straight-out funded (as near as I can tell) the production of the Mistwalker titles (Mistwalker is basically just Sakaguchi... it's not a full development studio, which is why other people realized "his" vision). They must've paid for "limited" exclusivity for most of the rest of the titles, because the trend with most of those early JRPGs was that they'd appear on the 360.... then jump to the PS3 later with more features (extra characters/content/etc.).

In hindsight, it probably made Microsoft feel a bit cheated on those deals. Xbox One launched with nary a mention of pushing for JP support, and they went towards doubling down on shooters/sports and (sigh) Cable television integration. I feel like they failed to realize that even games that aren't blockbusters CoD-types still perform the important role of fleshing out the offerings of your system. They've tried to sort of fix that since the original launch, but with limited success.

With that in mind, the "real" reason Experience likely decided to make or release games for the One probably has more to do with the fact that they have roots as a JP PC developer (somewhat unusual in that), and have spread from there to portables/etc. That's what I suspect anyway.

 

[aweigh]

I imagine MS throws good amount of money/contracts at these jap devs. Doesn't seem that hard to figure out to me. MS has so much money they operate Xbox division at a loss.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

I assume this a timed exclusive. After several months to a couple of years can hopefully expect this to be on the PC.

 

[Dorarnae]

yeah pretty sure they'll eventually port it. I thought this title was suposed to be a strategy rpg but looks like they're going drpg instead.

 

[aweigh]

From a coming-year-resolutions type of article on silicon era, this is what Experience said to them:

Experience

• Hajime Chikami (President): “The PlayStation 4 horror adventure game NG releases on February 21. To go with it, the previous title Death Mark’s novel and comic adaptations will also debut. I hope to see people further enjoy the world of Death Mark. Again, in 2019 we plan to release two dungeon RPGs in which we specialize. We might get something more than that ♪”

Read more at http://www.siliconera.com/2018/12/2...ons-and-teasers-for-2019/#kRhXkurk2jD63iop.99

I know one of those will be the one showcased in this very thread, but don't know what the 2nd DRPG could possibly be... hopefully one in the vein of SoSC.

 

[Gregz]

Have they released anything since SoSC that's playable on PC?

 

[aweigh]

nope.

 

[aweigh]

Gregz

well besides the remakes of generation XTH 1 and 2. i completely forgot about those because they made a bunch of changes that i didn't find to be good changes. i recommend playing the english fan-translation of generation xth 1 instead, and then (if you still actually want to) continue with the remake of part 2.

technically they released these after SoSC so it counts as an answer to your question, but i repeat: if you haven't played the generation xth games then play the original generation xth 1 with fan-translation instead of the remake, and if for whatever reason you still want more of it then there's the remake of part 2 available on steam.

 

[Ysaye]

Isn't Ray Gigant made by Experience Inc.? Also available on Steam.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/421600/Ray_Gigant/

It is a first person dungeon crawler....but I can't comment on how good or otherwise it is...

 

[aweigh]

oh i had completely forgotten about that game. it came out before SoSC i think. either way it's more of a visual novel than a DRPG, i tried playing it but i spent about 25 minutes clicking thru reams of bad anime text dumpb before saying 'fuck this'. It also wasn't rated highly on websites for whatever that's worth.

 

[LESS T_T]

I know one of those will be the one showcased in this very thread, but don't know what the 2nd DRPG could possibly be... hopefully one in the vein of SoSC.

Well they said they have a plan for SoSC 2 few years ago. So if it's not cancelled...