Intro
The biggest season for video games is winding down, but that doesn’t mean it’s about to be quiet. In fact, Idea Factory International, Inc. decided to hold a press event in San Francisco to show fans and press alike whats new for the upcoming year. Luckily, Honey’s Anime was given the honor of talking with the Idea Factory International, Inc. team about their upcoming works and see what they had to offer us gamers in 2019!
Basic Info:
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| When it Established: | Idea Factory International, Inc. falls under the parent company Idea Factory Co., Ltd., which is located in Tokyo established in 1994. Idea Factory International, Inc. helps to localize and translate games like the Hakuoki series, Hyperdimension Neptunia, and Record of Agarest War for western audiences in North America and Europe. |
| Length of event: | Press Tour: 3 days (November 7th - 9th) Press Demo Party: 1 day (November 8th) |
| Place/Location: | San Francisco, CA |
The Event
The press event for Idea Factory International began with a short introduction of the games in a private meeting. We were able to talk with the team personally while they introduced each of the new games for us. Starting with Death end re;Quest, we were able to discuss the finer details of the game including gameplay, the Knockback feature, field bugs, and even some of the endings. Hint: Death end re;Quest had the help by staff who helped with Corpse Party, so beware of the multitude of endings you are in for! The game is reported to have a 1% success rate at finding the true ending, and we are more than excited to find out how many bad endings we can get before we get the true ending. Oh, and we are quite intrigued by the use of the isekai genre in the game so we are curious about how gameplay works in and out of the in-game game. Let’s not forget that Death end re;Quest allows you to change gameplay from shooter to fighting to even puzzle! As a game with the only announced release date of February 19th (USA) and February 22nd (EU), we are a little antsy to get our hands on the game.
Death end re;Quest - Opening Movie Trailer
Next, we got a chance to take a look at Dragon Star Varnir, a JRPG featuring a multi-tier battle system that absolutely excited us. That, and the interesting story really caught our attention as it revolves around a human having been fed dragon blood in order to survive. Zephy then joins a party of witches to fight against dragons, which has us reminiscing of The Witch and the Hundred Knight. The gameplay looks interesting and resembles multiple JRPGs, however the multi-plane system, the Enter the Dragon feature, and the ability to decide the fate of young witches has us curious to see how the game will play out.
Dragon Star Varnir - Teaser Trailer
Following Dragon Star Varnir was Arc of Alchemist, a game the Idea Factory International team compared to Water World, except the opposite. You are in a desert wasteland where you will have to seek out the Orbs to gain power to fight against Machine Dolls and other dangers. Using the Orbs, you have to use the elemental powers you gain to your advantage against your enemies. We’re really curious to see how Arc of the Alchemist takes the JRPG world to a new level with next summer.
Arc of Alchemist - Teaser Trailer
Lastly, Honey’s Anime got a glimpse into the game of Date A Live: Rio-Reincarnation, which we are so excited to see next summer. Featuring the original 2 games that were released on the PS3, we’ll also be treated to a continuation of the previous stories including the anime. We get a new character in Rio. The game also features branching storylines, lots of dialogue and actual decision making which will alter your path in the game, and Motion Portrait Animation that absolutely makes the characters appear more real than ever before! We cannot even put into words the level of excitement we feel about this visual novel coming out for the PS4 and PC.
Idea Factory International was also gracious enough to have a real press event with a few fans, press, and a few contest winners. It included music, drinks, food, and the Idea Factory International team who mingled among the guests looking quite slick in their custom varsity jackets. Everyone was friendly and it gave guests a chance to demo both Dragon Star Varnir (in the original Japanese with some English text) and Death end re;Quest (localized in English but voiced in Japanese). The staff were more than willing to discuss various details of the games and give insight on how to play.
Final Thoughts
Idea Factory International held their 5th annual press event in San Francisco, and it was quite the honor to attend the event this year. Meeting people in the industry was a blast and getting to try out the games they worked on was more than enough to top the night. Idea Factory International has a great team working together to localize new JRPGs. We even got to meet the minds behind the localization of the Hakuoki series and had to stop ourselves from fangirling right there. We’re happy to have been a part of the Idea Factory International press event and cannot wait to see what else they have in store next time!
Author: Jenangelx3