Rose Portal Games wants to make you think, laugh, and maybe cry a little bit while playingUnraveled. It’s a game that evokes Chrono Trigger, as well as other SNES and PSX JRPGs, and mixes it up with platforming and an emotional storyline that’s shown rather than told. It’ll be coming to Kickstarter soon.
As the trailer above reveals, Unraveled is about a young girl whose family goes missing at a ship breaking yard – a place where ships are demolished and turned into scrap. As she tries to track them down, she lets her imagination take over, conjuring up fantastical sights – giant sand castles, dragons, magical items, 80s-themed characters. Most notable of all these figments is a large fluffy monster companion that assists her.
As well as telling the story through flashbacks and wild illustrations, Unraveled also has battles with a “State Balance” system that has you divide skills between Calm and Anger states (raising one makes it stronger but leaves you vulnerable to the opposite type). There are also puzzles to solve, items to collect, and an ‘80s doll house that you’re able to decorate for bonuses.
It’s also worth noting that the game’s events are based on the documentary The Wire Nest. It’s about life for those who work at Mumbai’s ship breaking yards. If the game’s Kickstarter is successful, there will be stretch goals that will allow the emotion inherent to this story to come out further, as music from composers Hiroki Kikuta (Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3) and Dale North (Dragon Fantasy Book II) could be added.
Unraveled’s website currently hosts a countdown to the launch of the game’s Kickstarter campaign. Any more information about the game you may want can be found there. The current plan is to launch it for PC by the end of 2015.
