The West isn’t the only region making indie games. Japan-based Creative Intelligence Arts has just announced Project Phoenix today. It will be a hybrid between a role-playing game and a real-time strategy game.
Project Phoenix stars an amnesiac angel in the world of Azuregard. With the help of a templar, a sheltered princess, and a conflicted battlemage, the group must help the world in conflict find peace and “perhaps ultimately even save it from itself.”
Unlike most indie games, this project, the “brainchild” of Creative Intelligence Arts founder Hiroaki Yura, touts some rather big names in gaming. It employs the art direction of Kiyoshi Arai, who has worked on Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy XIV. Nobuo Uematsu, whose name is practically synonymous with just about any Final Fantasy soundtrack, will be composing the soundtrack. Various other members of the project, whose names have not been publicized, have track records spanning from Soulcalibur V, Halo 4, and L.A. Noire just to name a few.
The list of names attached to Project Phoenix may grow larger. A Kickstarter is planned for the project, and amongst the planned stretch goals include “the talents of Grammy Award-winning sound engineer John Kurlander and the Eminence Symphony Orchestra bringing the music of Uematsu and his composers to life.” That’s on top of the more standard goals that will add “additional areas, graphics and cinematics.” The Kickstarter will start sometime in the next week with a goal of $100,000.
Project Phoenix is planned for a mid-2015 release for Windows, Mac OS, Linux, iOS, and Android. A few pieces of concept art have also been released and are posted below.
