About a fortnight ago, Square Enix revealed their next iPhone project — an adventure game book, supervised by Final Fantasy XIII director, Motomu Toriyama, and produced by Shinji Hashimoto. On scripting duties for this game is Souki Tsukishima, also the writer for Root Double: Before Crime * After Days.
The mystery project has a name: Imaginary Range. Square Enix classify the genre as “game x comic” — a reference to the fact that, as you read the comic, you’ll need to find items hidden within the panels or clear a game to progress. Square point out that the games themselves are simple enough for anyone to tackle.
Here’s a message from producer, Shinji Hashimoto:
"I had planned for this project to be part of a MEMBERS Twitter celebration. Last year, I was thinking it would commemorate reaching 20,000 followers, but thanks to everyone’s enthusiastic support, we quickly surpassed the original plan, and as a result, it has become a 25,000-follower celebration. We will be releasing on iOS and Android, platforms with worldwide penetration. At the initial stages, we moved forward a little more casually, but with the original scenario and comic Messrs. Tsukishima and Itahana have given us, I believe it has become a rather fun application. By all means, please enjoy it, and we look forward to your continued support of Square Enix Members."
Famitsu.com have screenshots of Imaginary Range, including the one above. That one’s part of the comic portion of the game. The two below are examples of games you’ll need to clear to progress:
Imaginary Range is releasing very soon. Square Enix have it on track for May 5th release on the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days developer, h.a.n.d., have had a hand (sorry) in developing the game.
