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ASH Update - DS

13th October 2005, 7:59pm
Famitsu magazine has revealed a few more interesting tidbits about ASH, Hironobu Sakaguchi's project at his development studio 'Mistwalker'. First, the visuals. ASH doesn't use 2D and it doesn't use polygons. The title uses pre-rendered CG instead for the fight graphics. The reason for this unusual choice is that Sakaguchi felt that the style was fresh, and that even though the visuals look bad on a big screen, they look crisp and clean on the tiny DS screen. This is the same with every movie of a handheld title, really.

The Archaic Sealed Heat (hence "ASH") is an ancient flame that was locked away many years ago. If you are burnt by the flame, you turn into Ash. The protagonist of the story is Aisha, the queen of a kingdom. One day, her castle burns down and she is the only survivor. Her servants come partially back to life, with their bodies still ash, but their memories and heart are intact.

The servants will accompany Aisha on her adventures - apparently there will be over twenty in total, each named and playing a part in the development of the story. There is another key point to the plot - people from the future are travelling back to the present. Details of the entire legend and why these people are travelling back here are unravelled in the game.

The game is played with the stylus only - ASH is a strategy RPG that features a grid-based map, but RPG-like fights. This mix of genres is called "Team Tactics", according to the development staff. In fact, Sakaguchi has discussed the with Nintendo a possible name change to Team Tactics Series ASH. The top screen shots your characters up close, while the bottom has a map. In fights, the bottom screen has attack options.

Character designer Hideo Minaba revealed to Famitsu that his vision of a weapon for Aisha character is a gun...that can be equipped with different swords. It's unclear whether this will make the final cut for the game - though since they've only just finalised the plot, we can assume they have some time before they need to make a choice.

ASH looks to be an exciting title from the makers of Final Fantasy, and we'll keep you updated with all the info as soon as we hear it.
by Nick Schaedel » Author's Blog