New Info on Project O

Not much has been revealed on the mysterious Project O title for the Wii since its original announcement. The biggest appeal of the games announcement was the heavy hitters the game has working on it, such as Hideo Minaba (Art Director of Final Fantasy XII), Youichi Kawaguchi (Main Programmer of Dragon Quest VIII) Kazuyuki Kurashima (designer of Moon) and Yoshirou Kimura (Chulips) . With such big members of the gaming community the game has already hit a high level of hype with little to no information out on the title yet. The game has reappeared in the latest Famitsu and some new information on the game has been revealed in an interview with this dream team.

Minaba, Kimura and Kurashima revealed that the game first came about when Minaba asked Kimura for advice on what kind of art style should be made for the game. They later met with Kurashima in a Tokyo restaurant and they began discussing the art and character designs for Project O. However, soon after this meet up the project was put on a hiatus. Kurashima was admitted into a hospital and found himself in bed for a month, he told Famitsu. Kurashima is now feeling much better and actually began working on sketches for the games’ monsters after only being out of the hospital for a week.

Minaba and Kurashima provided Famitsu with a couple pieces of art work and they are as out of the ordinary as anyone would expect. The art they shared included a chicken standing upright flexing its muscles, a crazy bipedal cow, and a volcano with a hand at rest besides it. Minaba’s artwork shows a crowd of these creatures in a market beside a wooden building that appears to be under construction.

“There are people who make things, and people who destroy things,” states Minaba. Kimura then said, “Development and destruction are the keys to this games. In town, there are groups of people. Outside of town, there are groups of monsters. Development and destruction continues to take place, but it’s all done via AI. I can’t say anything clearer yet, though.”

Kurashima did provide one piece of information on the game throughout the interview which was that Project O will feature over 60 creatures in the game.

Famitsu is describing the game as one part like simulation and one part adventure game. Players will view the action from a distance and characters will live their own lives. Players will follow the storyline of the main character from a much closer perspective than they will the others.

The is expected to be shown at the Tokyo Game Show this September. Project O is currently set to release in Japan sometime in 2008.