Inafune’s New Game Stars One Chill Penguin

While he
wasn’t making a bizarre
guest appearance in Hyperdimension
Neptunia Mk. 2, working on an
otome game starring his “niece,” and working
on a social game people outside Japan may never be able to play, expatriate
Capcom producer Keiji Inafune and his new crew at Intercept were working on a full-blown
game of their own: Kaio: King of Pirates.
It’s an action/RPG for 3DS, with Marvelous Entertainment handling the
publishing duties. The game has a pirate theme with a fighting penguin as its
protagonist. And here you thought the “Penguin Revolution” mantra was only
referring to Kunihiko Ikuhara’s new anime series Mawaru Penguin Drum.

 

This was the
first idea for a game Inafune concocted after leaving Capcom almost precisely a
year ago. Kaio is a game that will use the classic story of Romance of the Three Kingdoms as its
inspiration, in that it will be a series with a high level of drama and tension
that will show players what lies beyond the concepts of “right” and “wrong.”
This is also a series that will have over 300 characters, many of which will be
personifications of the Three Kingdoms’ characters as animals. Inafune doesn’t
believe in the existence of “brand new concepts” in this day and age, but ones
that are derived from older works with their own twist. And yes, that’s “series”
because Inafune and Marvelous are planning for this to be a trilogy. It appears
they both have high aspirations for this, down to Inafune expecting the games
to assist in expanding the 3DS’ userbase.

 

Kaio will
tell the tale of characters waging war for the legendary “Lucifer Coin.”
Legends say that he who stumbles upon it shall rule Tai Hei Yo, an ocean a
powerful force transformed into one where nothing could survive — thus giving
it the name “Dark Ocean.” Three races, the Aves, the Beasts, and the Scales are
fighting for control of it — a callback to the Wu, Wei, and Shu kingdoms from
its inspiration. Neither parties involved in the game’s development have said
which race you’ll be playing, nor has the game itself been shown, but Inafune
explained the story was too long to be contained within one game. The games
themselves will span hundreds of years, but each one will have its own
conclusion. You shouldn’t expect the games to look exactly like those Comcept concept images, though. They should give you an idea of how colorful they’ll be.

 

Marvelous provided an
English website with preliminary info and a subtitled trailer, but that
doesn’t mean it’s been confirmed for a western release. Nintendo, he pointed
out in an interview with 4Gamer, makes a lot of kid-friendly games of high
quality, and he wanted to make a game that could exude a similar vibe. That’s
why he decided on 3DS as the right platform for the series.

 

He’s aware
some fans may be disappointed that he isn’t tackling something “mature” (i.e.
blood, guts, and zombies) at the moment, but assured them that he has more than
this in store for the future. Hopefully that’s a bit more than possibly becoming Idea Factory’s Chief
Producer, which will make some of them more
depressed.

Information gathered courtesy of the always helpful AndriaSang, and Marvelous’ English website.