Maybe Mixing Artwork Isn’t So Bad In Shining Mars

Shining Mars is the next in the long line of smartphone RPG titles from Kemco, but unlike their more retro-based general RPG fair, this is going for a softer, cuter style.

The game mixes both 3D animated sprites with hand-drawn 2D monster artworks in a tale that explores the mystery behind “something important forgotten”. The subtitle also suggests there’s more to life than meets the eye, billing Shining Mars as “a story about life”.

The choice of graphic style is peculiar, but seems to work from the short trailer video, including a pastel-style art for the overland map that’s a little reminiscent of the map of Norende in Bravely Default. It helps that the background music is suitably haunting and fits the theme of feeling adrift from the rest of the world.

There also seems to be a recent thing with Kemco and animal playable characters, in this case the feline-looking Topasu.

Shining Mars is available on Android now in Japan, with an iOS version due in June.