Following Inazuma Eleven and Yo-kai Watch, Level-5 announced their fourth major mixed media project, Snack World, during their Level-5 Vision 2015 presentation. The game is in development for the Nintendo 3DS and will also have a smartphone version.
While Level 5 showed a little gameplay footage, the majority of the announcement was done through a short movie that showed a look at some of the characters we can expect to see in the upcoming title.
While most of the short movie was done in comedy-style, it seems like there are some serious moments, as they reveal a bit of a sad past of the main character Chup, but he is then shown busting some jokes while fighting against Medusa.
The “Jara” is a keychain-like item that Chup used in the short film, which is basically a minature item that transforms into a full-sized item, and goes back into its keychain form afterwards. These items will play a major role in the game, anime, and franchise.
The Jara will have various other interaction capabilities in addition to your 3DS and your friends’ 3DSes, but it’ll also have some interaction features at events, and will work on your friends’ smartphones, at stores, and more. The idea behind the Jara device is to have players feel like they’re actually part of the game with physical items that interact with what’s going on in the screen.
Takara Tomy shared a look at the toy of the Crystal Sword item, which will interact with the game, and will be sold in little treasure boxes.
The Jara work similarly to Nintendo’s Amiibo, and will let you get the items through maps and other means when you have them interact with the game. There are all kinds of other items, like magic books that teach you spells.
The game is also in development for smartphone. This also uses the NFCtechnology to interact with the Jara items, so they’ll work on both 3DS and smartphone versions of the game.
As for the mixed media project, Level-5 have plans for a game, film, anime, toys, and more for the franchise. “Hyper Casual Fantasy” is the key phrase for the project, which will mix a fantasy setting with a real-life world.
CEO Akihiro Hino said that he’d like to use Level 5’s knowhow and experience from having made Yo-kai Watch toward making Snack World into something bigger than what they’ve done with the Yo-kai series.
