ForwardWorks hosted its special program for the upcoming smartphone game Wild Arms: Million Memories, where we got to see its first trailer as well as a look at its gameplay and info on how it plays.
Here’s a look at the first trailer of Wild Arms: Million Memories:
And here’s the full program with highlights below:
The “New Information Announcement Program” of Wild Arms: Million Memories is hosted by the company’s executive director, Tomoki Kawaguchi. Before getting into the info for the new game, we get a look back at the previous entries of the series in a Wild Arms introduction at the 8:00 mark of the video, followed by a brief introduction of Million Memories as the series’ 20th anniversary title.
The game is set on planet Filgaia, but as fans of the series may know, each “Filgaia” appears as a completely different world with a different set of continents for each game. However, in Wild Arms: Million Memories we’ll see characters from past Wild Arms games set in a brand-new world of Filgaia.
A prologue footage starts at around the 10:05 mark of the video, where the characters find themselves in a pinch and we’re not entirely sure what’s happening, but basically Filgaia was on the brink of destruction and a quote saying “Why did you betray everyone? Rudy…” To find out what happened, you’ll have to play the game.
We then got a little character introduction at the 12:37 mark:
Rudy Roughknight
Ashley Winchester
Virginia Maxwell
Jude Maverick, Dean Stark, Clarissa Arwin
In addition to Jude, Dean, and Clarissa, the game features plenty of other characters that appeared in the Wild Arms series.
Britney Shrewsbury
Britney Shrewsbury is an original character. She’s a young ARMs Meister that plays an important role in the story.
Other than Britney there will be many other new characters introduced in Million Memories.
The game system part starts at the 14:00 mark of the video. In Million Memories, you’ll progress through a dramatic main story featuring Rudy and friends. The Sub-Quests are side-stories for the characters. There are also events to check out, featuring limited-time episodes. Those are the three main modes of the game.
Your party consists of three characters plus a supporter character.
The game is an action RPG with simple controls and swipes to move.
You attack by tapping on the screen for basic attacks,and flick to evade enemy attacks.
If you pull off a perfect evasion by evading right before a hit, it grants you temporary invulnerability for a couple seconds. You can also hold down the attack for a Charge Attack and time it against the enemy for Charge Counter.
Special skills vary based on the ARMs a character has equipped.
ARM stands for “Awakening of Resonant Memories.” They’re basically memories scattered about Filgaia that have powerful abilities within. There are all kinds of ARMs, from famous scenes of the series to different characters.
You can have up to three characters out in battle at once and switch between the character you control by simply tapping their icons.
When the FA (Force Ability) meter fills up on the bottom-right part of the screen, you can use a character’s unique skills.
By advancing through the story, you’ll meet new characters to befriend and add to your party. All the characters have their own play styles and you can further customize the way it is played with the addition of ARMs,
As for the staff involved in the development, series creator Akifumi Kaneko is the overall production supervisor, which he did with most of the series. Music has always been a big part of Wild Arms, and for that reason they got series composer Michiko Naruke onboard to work some more of her magic for Million Memories.
Wright Flyer Studios, the company behind titles such as Another Eden and several other smartphone games is developing the game. The animation is being handled by A-1 Pictures’ CloverWorks studio.
Lastly, here’s a message from Akifumi Kaneko:
“The release of the series’ latest title is finally almost here.
No matter how many times we release these games, I’ll never lose this feeling of excitement each time we do.
My chest is full of nervousness as well as the anticipation to match that.
The new title, Wild Arms: Million Memories, comes from the passionate memories of Wright Flyer Studios’ staff, who played through the series as fans back in the day, with plans that started from the ‘memories.’
However, the theme of Million Memories isn’t simply nostalgia for the sake of having it. It’ll bring a story set in Filgaia to the palm of your hands on smartphone, and like the Wild Arms before it, its development is moving forward while actively trying new things.
In other words, Wild Arms: Million Memories isn’t a destination for the many memories out there, but rather, just a passing point
I’m working hard together with the staff for a theme of creating new memories with everybody, once again. To those I say ‘long time no see!’ as well as those I say ‘nice to meet you!’ I hope you get to try it out.
Wild Arms is coming back soon.”
– Akifumi Kaneko
Wild Arms: Million Memories is in development for iOS and Android. Its release date will be announced in the near future. Pre-registration will also go live soon for Android.
