retro | After Dark Gaming

We here at the two-man development studio known as Zeboyd Games are pleased to announce that our next RPG, Cosmic Star Heroine, will be coming out on PS4 and PS Vita next year! And to go along with that announcement, here’s our Sega-CD inspired opening video for our game! Enjoy!

A very special thanks to Dean Dodrill (Dust: An Elysian Tail) who helped out with effects and animation, as well as Chris Geehan and Dan Byrne-McCullough over at Hyperduck (who did the music for our last RPG) for helping make that video go to 11! And of course, our own Bill Stiernberg, who handled the brunt of the work!

Cosmic Star Heroine is our latest attempt to recapture the feel of some of the classic RPGs of the 90s, while putting our own unique spin on the whole experience. Inspired by games like Chrono Trigger (visual style, on-map battles, combo techniques), the Phantasy Star series (overall feel of the worlds and characters), and the Suikoden series (political intrigue, expandable player headquarters), we can’t wait to share Cosmic Star Heroine with you!

So who is the titular Cosmic Star Heroine?

Alyssa L’Salle! She’s one of the galactic government’s top agents, and has saved the galaxy more than once! But when she accidentally uncovers a dark conspiracy, her own government outs her as a legendary spy and the people’s champion! Sure, now she has hordes of adoring fans, but every villainous organization she’s ever crossed in her career knows who she is and is out for her blood! Can she save the day once more while she faces her greatest challenge… everyone!?

But she won’t have to go it alone! No, she’ll be leading a bizarre group of “heroes” into battle.

We’ve made several RPGs in the past (Cthulhu Saves the World, Breath of Death VII, Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 & 4), but we’re really stepping up our ambition with Cosmic Star Heroine. A deeper story, meticulously balanced play, a brain-melting soundtrack from Hyperduck, glorious 16-bit-esque pixel art, and much more await you!

And that means we need your help! We’ll be running a Kickstarter to raise needed development funds to make Cosmic Star Heroine the best “Shoulda been released in the 90s” RPG ever! And thanks to the good people at Sony, we’ll be able to offer cross-buy (buy once, get both versions!) PS4/Vita PSN codes for Cosmic Star Heroine at the low reward tier of $10! And of course, there’ll be plenty of other cool rewards if you choose to donate more!
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PlayStation 3 has been getting some retro games love lately and it is not about to end: Capcom announced today that the PSN will be gettingCapcom Arcade Cabinet: Retro Game Collection.

The Arcade Cabinet: Retro Game Collection will mostly focus on 1980s Capcom games which were released for the arcade. The release of this collection is the company’s way to celebrate its 30th anniversary on June 11th, 2o13.

The only game that is announced to be a part of this collection so far isBlack Tiger, a fantasy-themed side-scroller released in 1987. When asked about other titles that will be in the collection, producer Kenji Kataoka said “I can’t go into details on titles yet, but we’re definitely focusing on the games that came out earlier on in our history. These are completely faithful reproductions, too. You used to have arcade games ported to the NES and such and wind up being completely different titles on that platform, but that’s not the case here. Even if there were bugs in the original, we’ve kept them in there if we felt we needed to in order to retain the original feel of the game.”

However, Kenji didn’t rule out implementing various tweaks to the games featured in the collection, “for example, you can adjust the strength of your attacks, the range of collision detection, and so forth. This allows you to engage in training, and we’ve got support for turbo buttons and arcade sticks as well. I was able to use these functions to reach the ending on pretty much all of the games [we have planned], so they’re great for people who were annoyed they couldn’t beat them back then. For people [who don’t want changes], it’s set up so all additional functions can be turned on and off.”

Regarding the distribution of Capcom Arcade Cabinet: Retro Game Collection, Kenji said: “we’ll be releasing a free starter pack of sorts that lets you play one title to the end, We’re still debating how we’ll distribute the other titles, but one plan we have in mind is to have packs of multiple games available for really surprisingly cheap prices. I think we’ll have the demo out before too long, and we’re setting up the distribution schedule for the rest of the games such that we’ll be keeping players entertained for a while to come.”

Capcom will make full announcement of Capcom Arcade Cabinet: Retro Game Collection on February 7th.

[Via]