February 2025 Update

Campaign Update

Hello there JRPG fans!
We have another update for both games below. Thank you for your patience while we needed some extra time to prepare the update.

Development Update

It’s February! It’s Setsubun! It’s Valentine’s Day! Japanese events during this month are all food-based, involving beans, ehou-maki, and chocolate. Just walking through the supermarket reminds us that Spring is near.
Still, the cold hasn’t left us yet, so I hope you are all taking care of yourselves. This month’s update is brought to you from Ishii.

Armed Fantasia February 2025 Project News

Chief Director Ishii here.
It’s February now. Right now in front of my eyes, two older men are seriously arguing about how the anomalies should be split up within the world. This will eventually be decided in detail so that similar-looking anomalies don’t appear one after another based on appearance region and how the story unfolds, but it also depends a lot on the individuality of the people who actually place them, so I can’t wait to see what happens.
Oh no, I heard some foreboding words just now. “We don’t have enough anomalies!”

Introducing Some Dungeon Puzzle Gimmicks

Since this game will be a spiritual successor to Wild Arms, the dungeon puzzles that players solve using the characters’ gadgets will be one of its unique features. We’re planning many diverse puzzles to help you enjoy exploration, but at the same time, they’ll also serve as serious brain-teasers. I feel like these sorts of elements have sort of disappeared in recent games compared to how things used to be, but that may be due to development cost-related reasons as well from a desire to not want to stress out players.
Armed Fantasia will be full of proper puzzles, so we hope you’re looking forward to it. Here, I’d like to introduce two different switches: Impact Switches and Throwing Switches, along with their design art.

Impact Switch

The first one is the Impact Switch. Dealing an impact to it will activate the switch, which could result in various things: doors opening, floors moving, etc. We’ve designed it so that it’ll stand out while also not looking too out of place in any dungeon.
All this switch needs is an impact, so Ingram’s bomb gadget that we introduced previously could be used to activate it, along with several other gadgets.
These will be parts of common puzzles that appear: multiple switches may need to be activated at the same time, or in a certain order, etc. On top of that, they may appear in places that you can’t seem to be able to reach, so we’re confident they’ll make you think in various ways. You might even be able to use some fallen debris to activate some of them…
Here’s how we envision this switch to work.

We still haven’t put in the details yet, but I like how you can instantly tell at a single glance whether it’s activated or not.

Projectile Switch

The second thing I’d like to show off is the Projectile Switch. These can be activated using projectiles for various results. We designed this switch so it’ll be easy to recognize from a distance. Unlike impact switches, these will be attached to walls and might be easier to miss. I recommend keeping your eyes peeled in dungeons where these appear.
Since projectiles activate them, it’ll be possible to hit them with various different gadgets…but we’re still discussing whether the Anchor Hook will be categorized as a projectile or not. These switches will be easy to activate once you’ve found them, but they require you to think outside the box in the second half of the game. For example, you may need to knock something down with a gadget and use that as a projectile to activate a switch.
Here’s how we envision this switch to work.

Similar to the previous switch, I like how you can instantly tell at a single glance whether it’s activated or not.

Dungeon Puzzles Rules

So,how did you like the two switches? They’re classic elements of dungeon puzzles, so we’re going to try and be clever with our placement to make the game even more fun.
Finally, we’ve set a rule for ourselves where we won’t require players to busily combine gadgets, such as using Gadget B while you’re already using Gadget A to do something, since that would make the gameplay too action-based. Similarly, you won’t be able to use gadgets while jumping.
However, we will allow puzzles where you’ll have to first interact with a gimmick using Gadget A and then use Gadget B on the gimmick afterwards, so the second half of the game will probably require you to combine gadgets in various ways. We hope you’re looking forward to it.
Now then, I’m going to start working on the designs of the anomalies that were just ordered, so that’ll be it for this update. See you next month.