Away, the new “Shuffle Dungeon” action-RPG for DS, from Mistwalker and Artoon
The latest issue of Japanese gaming magazine Weekly Famitsu announces Away, a new action-RPG for the Nintendo DS, from publisher AQ Interactive. The game is under development as a collaborative effort between Blue Dragon partners Mistwalker and Artoon.
In this “Shuffle Dungeon” game, the goal is to rescue kidnapped villagers while exploring deep dungeons. The creators claim it’s different from typical dungeon crawlers, because the dungeon maps span both screens, and every few seconds half of the map is “shuffled,” changing the terrain and harming the hero, should he get caught up in it. In a Soul Blazer-esque twist, returning people to the surface will cause the village to grow and new events to unfold, translates 1UP.
With a scenario written by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi (Mistwalker) and characters and enemies drawn by Sonic the Hedgehog designer Naoto Ohshima (Artoon), the game is looking to have plenty of personality. Away is currently 85% complete and will be released in Japan in February 2008. No foreign release info was given (or confirmed for that matter).
Here are scans showing more screenshots:
Scans via Kotaku
