Near the end of the E3 2015 Square Enix press conference, SE Holdings President and CEO Yosuke Matsuda emphasized the importance of RPGs to the company’s well being. Specifically, he stated that he knew how important Square’s identity was in terms of of its output and its fans’ expectations. He revealed the establishment of a new in house studio called Tokyo RPG Factory and explained what influenced what led to giving it that particular name. Quoting Matsuda directly from his presentation:
“The name represents our dedication to creating Japanese RPGs.”
Immediately after this explanation, a few slides featuring concept art for an upcoming console RPG were shown, accompanied by the kinds of somber and melodic piano chords that are all but woven into the DNA of Square Enix titles. Matsuda provided some extra narrative during the reveal:
‘This is an all new console RPG. It’s not a spinoff or a remake, but a completely new series. With its delicate and somewhat wistful atmosphere, we are calling it Project SETSUNA.”
Here is the concept art provided while Matsuda spoke about the forthcoming title.
Matsuda was unable to share any details on the game, but assured that it was already under development, with a global release set for sometime in 2016. From the artwork provided, it appears to take place in a windswept world of eternal winter. The airship, or spaceship (since we don’t really know much about the game at this point), appears to have been buried in the ice for a very long time and may represent a part of the game that players will be able to go into and explore. Or it could just be a nice visual to help with player immersion. We won’t know until Square Enix decides to give us more info. We don’t even know if the game will continue to be called Project SETSUNA (which, translated from Japanese, means ‘moment’ or ‘instant’, as if to say ‘in an instant’). We’ll just have to wait and see if the name sticks, but it’s almost certain that the word ‘Setsuna’ is intrinsic to the game in some fashion and not just a casually-applied monicker.
The new studio has a website already, and you can visit it by clicking here.
Here is the E3 2015 Square Enix press conference in its entirety. The part concerning Tokyo RPG Factory starts at 1:27:34 (give or take a few milliseconds):
Project SETSUNA is scheduled for release in 2016, but the platform and specific date are not yet known.
