Welcome to the Penny Blood: Hellbound pre-order store! You can pre-order Penny Blood: Hellbound as well as some premium rewards here. Everyone who pre-orders or purchases via the Backerkit store receives the limited edition Closed Beta Backer Emblem. If you have purchased something from the Armed Fantasia and Penny Blood Kickstarter or Backerkit Pre-order store you are eligible for a discount so please choose the “Backer Discount” version. If this is your first time purchasing anything related to Armed Fantasia or Penny Blood, please choose the “New backer” option or you can visit the original Double Kickstarter Backerkit Pre-order store here.
https://double-kickstarter.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
If you back a game there you are eligible for the Pre-exisitng Backer discount. Please visit the Closed Beta Google Form in-game to provide feedback and help us make the best game possible.
Penny Blood: Hellbound features:
・Play as the Hellhounders - the rival group of baddies that try to thwart Matthew and friends at their every turn in Penny Blood.
・Roguelike gameplay where each run provides a plethora of unlocks, power-ups, and new skills as you march forward towards the final confrontation.
・The Malice System where the more blood you spill, the more currency you earn for unlocks
・Blood spilt also allows for better mobility via "bloodsurfing" where you can unleash stronger momentum-based attacks and skill-based upgrades
・Strategize your run well by choosing the best pair of Hellhounders out of a total 6 selectable characters that you can swap between in real-time
・Music by Yoshitaka Hirota with guest composer Noriyuki Iwadare of Lunar and Grandia fame
...
ようこそ、「PENNY BLOOD: HELLBOUND」予約ストアへ！ここでは、「PENNY BLOOD: HELLBOUND」と、プレミアムリワードの予約ができます。バッカーキットから予約、または購入された皆様には、バッカー向けベータ版の限定エンブレムをプレゼントいたします。また、すでに「ARMED FANTASIA」と「PENNY BLOOD」のダブルキックスターターやバッカーキット予約ストアにて購入済みのものがある方には、割引特典が適用されますので、予約時に「Backer Discount」版の選択をお願いいたします。今回が「ARMED FANTASIA」または「PENNY BLOOD」関連で初めてのお買い物の皆様は、「New backer」を選んでいただきますようお願いいたします。また、ダブルキックスターターのバッカーキット予約ストアでどちらかのタイトルをご購入されましたら、割引が適用されます。是非、限定ベータ版Google Formにてフィードバックをご提供いただき、ベストなゲームを作れるよう力を貸していただけると幸いです。
ダブルキックスターターバッカーキットストア：https://double-kickstarter.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
PENNY BLOOD: HELLBOUNDの要素
・『PENNY BLOOD』でマシューとその仲間たちの行く手を阻もうとする敵の悪党集団、ヘルハウンダーズとしてプレイ。
・最終決戦に向けて前進するたびに、解放要素、パワーアップ、新しいスキルの数々が手に入るローグライクゲーム。
・血を流せば流すほど、アンロックのための通貨が増える「マリスシステム」。
・勢いをつけた強力な攻撃やスキルのアップグレードを可能にする「ブラッドサーフィン」で機動性のアップも、血を流すことで可能。
・リアルタイムで入れ替え可能な6人のヘルハウンダーズから、最適なペアを選択し、お好きな戦略で出陣。
・作曲は弘田佳孝、ゲストコンポーザーとして『LUNAR ザ・シルバースター』や『グランディア』で有名な岩垂徳行も参加。
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Summer 2025 Update!
7 months ago
– Fri, Aug 01, 2025 at 03:59:34 AM
Hello JRPG fans,
It's been a few months so we have some quick progress updates for you.
Development Update
ARMED FANTASIA August 2025 Monthly Project Report
Director Sekiya here.
I apologize for always talking about the weather, but it has been extremely hot in Japan for multiple days in a row. When walking down the street on a sunny day, the strong direct sunlight overhead and the heat rising from the paved road make me feel like I've been thrown into a microwave.
Speaking of microwaves, I recall a horror movie titled 'Microwave Massacre' that I saw at a small rental video store in the 1980s. The package illustration featured a woman’s head with bulging eyes being cooked inside a microwave, which was incredibly striking. It piqued my morbid curiosity, making me wonder, “What kind of movie is this!?” However, back then, rental video fees were quite expensive, so I didn’t have the financial leeway to rent such a bizarre horror movie, and I never ended up watching it.
(I did rent ‘Death Warmed Up,’ though!)
That independently owned rental video store, which was always filled with the scent of deodorizing cologne, even closed down, and I never got to watch ‘Microwave Massacre.' It left a strong impression on me, and nothing more.
After I became an adult I had the opportunity to acquire a DVD of the film, but I still haven't watched it to this day. I feel like it would be a shame to know the true content of the film at this point.
I suspect that ‘Microwave Massacre’ will forever remain unwatched, sitting on the back shelf of my movie collection, eternally bearing the expectations I felt on that day in my youth.
Setting aside this personal anecdote that only fellow enthusiasts of my generation would understand,
I now bring you this update after several months. We apologize for the concern this has caused our fans, but the project is still progressing as we make adjustments to bring it closer to our ideal form.
This time, we'll show you a brief glimpse of a battle scene running on the development hardware.
■Battle Scene Video
For the first time ever, we're showing you actual battle scene gameplay footage.
First, we'd like to strongly emphasize that this is still a work-in-progress version.
Character models, effects, lighting, and other elements are still subject to further adjustments.
Elements such as elemental affinity displays and break turns, which have not been introduced to you yet, can be seen here and there. The truth is there is still the possibility that we might make significant changes to the battle system, so once the thorough review is complete, we plan to share more battle system info with you at a later date.
The behaviors of the various gauges are also based on temporary values for development purposes, and do not reflect actual data, so please take this as a rough preview of the atmosphere.
We hope this gives you a good idea of the sort of energetic battles that Ingram, Euclid, and Alicia will be taking part in.
It's been brief, but that concludes this month's report.
We still haven't decided what we will report on yet, but the next update will come after a few more months. Please take care of your health and get through this summer safely.
See you next time.
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Penny Blood Project Diary
Good evening, everyone. It's been a while since our last update.
Recently, we received an inquiry asking, “Why are you writing a novel instead of the main game?” We understand your concerns, so we would like to take this opportunity to explain the reason once again.
As you may already know, unfortunately, PENNY BLOOD still does not have a publisher, and production of the main game has not progressed. The funds raised through the Double Kickstarter campaign ran out by Autumn 2023, and since then, Studio Wild Rose has been operating on Machida and Kato's own funds.
Many of you may have continued to support us by purchasing things on BackerKit after the Double Kickstarter campaign, but we understand that the funds raised through BackerKit will be distributed once the game is completed, so they have not yet reached us.
Therefore, Studio Wild Rose created “Inheritors Story” with the aim of enhancing the value of the Penny Blood IP and attracting the attention of as many potential publishers as possible by making it popular worldwide.
Additionally, regarding new information, while “Inheritors Story” has been well-received, we have received many requests to read it in paperback rather than as an e-book. In response to this, we are currently working on releasing a Kindle Paperback (an actual paper book) version. We will announce the specific release date once it is decided.
We will continue to strive, step by step, until the production of the main Penny Blood game becomes a reality. We kindly ask for your understanding and support.
That's all for now. We look forward to seeing you again in the next update.
March 2025 Update
12 months ago
– Fri, Mar 14, 2025 at 04:01:13 AM
Campaign Updates
We regret to announce that both projects, originally scheduled to launch in March 2025, have been delayed. As a result, we will be reducing the number of Kickstarter updates from once a month to once every two to three months. The time spent on updates will be used to focus on the development of both titles, finding more partners, and providing our supporters with more substantial and exciting updates. Thank you for your understanding.
Developer Updates
To all the supporters of ARMED FANTASIA:
Hello. This is Kaneko, the person in charge of total game design and scenario writer of ARMEDFANTASIA. Today, I have an important announcement to make. When we held the Kickstarter campaign for ARMED FANTASIA, we announced the game was scheduled to be released in March 2025, but after much discussion among the team and the developers, and as a result of the current progress of the project, it has been decided to review and postpone the launch date of ARMED FANTASIA.
We are truly sorry for the delay. We will continue to discuss the changed release date and other matters. I am unable to disclose any further specifics of the situation at this time, but since I was able to report this decision to you now, it should be clear that we are still moving things forward little by little. We are working to bring ARMED FANTASIA closer to its ideal form and to go beyond the realistic limitations of the project. The campaign team and the developers are putting their blood, sweat and tears into the wasteland of Londenium, so we appreciate your continued support and encouragement. We will do our best.
ARMED FANTASIA March 2025 Project News
Director Sekiya here.
Now, this month, I would like to share with you some information related to the game's UI.
Main Menu Screen Design
This is a screen shot of the main menu for review, although it is still under development. We plan to make adjustments from here and further optimize it as necessary, so in a sense, this may be a rare image that can only be seen at this time. The naming conventions for “ARMs” and “modules” have not yet been determined, so the temporary names used in the development process have been blurred.
As you can see, it’s a hierarchy menu where you can switch between different categories and perform detailed actions.
The pop-esque coloring is orange to represent energy and the wasteland. The UI was designed by the designers at bee tribe.They tried to balance things between comfort and catchiness, and we’re aiming for screens that are fun to control with interesting graphical transitions.
Regarding Message Size
Everything we’re showing you here is also under development.
As for the font type and whether or not the message window has a background, please note that these are only tentative and will change in the future. We’ll design how it should look based on the overall atmosphere, so please look forward to it. Also, since we are still in the verification stage, we will only be releasing Japanese messages at this time.
We apologize to our overseas fans.
This is what the dialog says: Ingram “If I have anything to apologize about, it’s breaking the promise I made to my grandpa and using my own savings and selling family heirlooms to buy an ARM.”
The message size was the subject of much debate among the development staff in terms of readability and screen layout. In the end, it seems like we’re going to allow users to change the font size on their end. By the way, Kaneko-san recommends the “Standard” option, but he says the “Large” option isn’t bad either.
The reason for this is: the message size is also a part of the atmosphere since it’s also visual information.
Considering the passion and momentum of the story that Kaneko-san wants to depict in ARMED FANTASIA, along with a certain level of silliness, it does seem like it would be better to keep the message size on the larger side, since smaller text has a tendency to look stylish and cool. That’s what he’s always said since the beginning of development.
Which size do you prefer?
Small Font Size
Standard Font Size
Large Font Size
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That concludes this month’s update. The next update will be coming several months later, so we hope you’re looking forward to it.
◆2025.03.14
Penny Blood Project Diary
Good evening, everyone. Today is White Day. Westerners may be thinking, what the heck is that? In Japan, females give males chocolate on Valentine's Day, and males are supposed to return the favor on White Day.
This holiday is probably just a strategy enacted by some sweets manufacturer, but I am just another citizen who has become accustomed to it.
Thus, for this month we had Hanya-san draw a White Day illustration for you all. Last time was Emilia, but this time we have a cool shot of Matthew.
This month I'll be once again talking about the production of Penny Blood Inheritors Story Vol. 2. The authors and designers are all writing and drawing daily. Last month I read some first drafts based on the outlines, and some of the frequent meetings have lasted nearly three hours.
The writers are attempting to write easy-to-follow sentences that will help you imagine each scene, and subplots will be wrapped up alongside surprising developments, while each climax will pack a punch. Everyone is working hard to connect all these elements across a natural flow.
Every time I see a newly-completed illustration, I can imagine the scene, landscape and characters' movements as if it was all part of a cutscene from a game or anime, which helps add new detail to the sentences. This is how the second volume is gradually coming together, so I hope you're excited.
See you all next update. I can't wait for the arrival of spring and blooming cherry blossoms.
Matsuzo Machida
Message from Hirota-san:
Hello everyone. It's been a while since my last message. Have you all been doing well?
In December, I finished my work on Penny Blood: Hellbound, and enjoyed my first relaxation period in a while during January and February. Still, I mainly focused on switching my work environment over to my new Mac, so I had to activate and install an insane amount of music and plug-ins...and I'm still not finished yet. It made me realize how a lot of modern composers probably have to spend a lot of time doing maintenance on their PC environments.
Speaking of maintenance, I counted the dozens of instruments I regularly used in my studio and found out that I've amassed 70 in total! I also have to change out the strings on these instruments regularly, so I became a bit delirious when I thought about how much time I've spent in my life changing out strings, doing maintenance on my instruments, and installing things on my PC. Unlike composition, however, I can do all of this while listening to music, so it's fun in its own way.
I also took some time to meet up with people I haven't seen for a while. I got to meet up with the composer Kenji Ito and share old stories while also talking about the future. Today, I plan to go meet Yamaguchi-san, a sound effects artist. I communicated with Yamaguchi-san a lot while working on Penny Blood: Hellbound, but wasn't able to schedule a real-life meeting, so we'll finally be able to do our wrap-up meeting today.
I've also been enjoying my research into the evolution of 1920s music, particularly jazz and blues, including boogie woogie, along with Irish music, which all comes from the time period in which Penny Blood is set. I can't wait to finish shifting everything over to my Mac so I can start having fun and composing more demo tracks.
It looks like it'll be a while until I can release the Penny Blood: Hellbound soundtrack, for various reasons, but I aim to make sure it's a release that you can all enjoy. Until then, please enjoy the music using the in-game jukebox!
Japan is still in the middle of winter, with cold days coming right after another, so please take care that you don't catch colds.
February 2025 Update!
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Feb 14, 2025 at 03:13:43 AM
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.
◆2025.02.14 PENNY BLOOD Project Diary
Good evening, everyone. Today is Valentine's Day, so has Hanya-san has a new illustration to present to you all. Many charming female characters appear in Penny Blood, but today's art features Emilia, the heroine.
Recently, Japan has been experiencing the biggest nationwide cold spell in the past several years, and Niigata, where we live, has been seeing snowstorms every day. I don't think we've seen this much snow since we moved here from Tokyo in 2022, three years ago. Peaceful winters are nice, of course, but there are some views that can only be enjoyed midst raging snow. We try to look for things to enjoy like that as we proceed with our work day after day.
Studio WildRose is currently putting their blood, sweat and tears into the second volume of the Penny Blood Inheritors Stories. The plots for the second halves of the stories are coming together, and we're finally seeing where the climaxes will lead. As the writers work their hardest to fold up everything they've unraveled, the illustrators are also skillfully working on the illustrations. I'm sure that everyone's efforts will culminate into some great entertainment in this upcoming set of enthralling stories.
January 2025 Update
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Jan 10, 2025 at 02:52:14 AM
Happy New Year JRPG fans!
We hope you had a chance to relax over the holidays and play some video games as well!
Development Update
2025 has begun.
In Japan, a TV program called “Yuku-toshi Kuru-toshi” is broadcast at the end of the year.
The program features live broadcasts of New Year's celebrations throughout the country, and you can see the “Joya no Kane” bell being rung and people doing the special “Ni-nen mairi” shrine visits at shrines and temples in various regions.
Every time I watch this program, I’m reminded that Japan has various climates.
While the air is dry in Tokyo, the Sea of Japan side of the country receives moist air from the continent and experiences heavy snowfall every winter, which is a rarity throughout the world. According to some statistics, the top three cities in the world in terms of snowfall and snow accumulation are all located in Japan!
May 2025 be a good year for you. The first monthly report of this year is from Sekiya.
Armed Fantasia January 2025 Project Diary
Director Sekiya here. I hope you’ll all continue cheering us on throughout 2025.
If we were still in the Showa Era this year, and things had never changed to Heisei or Reiwa, it would be Showa Year 100. (Sorry if this intro seems odd to people overseas.)
Incidentally, the 100th year of the Showa era is the year in which the film “NEGADON - the Monster from Mars” is set. So, for the first time in over 20 years, I pulled out the DVD from my video software shelf and watched it as my first film this year. Every little detail, from the Japanese retro-futuristic cinematography to the gimmicks of the giant robot MI-6 that fights Negadon are all filled with the director’s unique sensibility, so I enjoyed watching it even now.
I have to confess, though, that every staff member was really busy at the end of last year, so I don’t really have much material to report on this month.
We would have loved to have prepared a New Year's illustration, but we were unable to coordinate that with our illustrator. So at the very least, hoping it can serve as an apology, here is a high model image of a snake-esque anomaly that matches the Chinese zodiac animal for this year, called the Ukonvasara. It kind of looks like a good luck charm, right?
(By the way, why did Mr. Kaneko name this design “Ukonvasara”?)
For this update, I’ll be delivering an assortment of little tidbits to you.
Chest Design
This is what the treasure chests in the field will look like.
You may think they look simple, like what anyone could imagine a treasure chest to look like, but there's actually a long history leading up to this design.
The worldview of “ARMED FANTASIA” is rather sci-fi oriented, and filled with shiny mechanical props, so the treasure chests were also initially designed to match that aesthetic. However, when we placed them in those mechanical dungeons, they blended in with the background more than we wanted them to, making it hard for players to tell whether they'd found a chest or a mechanism, so we did away with the mechanical designs.
When you find a treasure chest, it's more exciting if you can tell it's a chest at first glance, so we decided it would be better if it was designed in a way that it would stick out when placed in a variety of locations. That's how we ended up with this design, which would look right at home in a medieval fantasy setting. Incidentally, there are three grades of chests, and you'll need the right keys to access the contents of blue and red ones.
Oh, and here's some more treasure chest-related information.
The mimic that appeared in the “Wild Arms” series will also appear in this title. However, the design has been completely redesigned, making it quite unique.
When the draft was submitted, the office became filled with excitement. “We've never seen a mimic like this before!" I want everyone to feel the impact we felt when seeing it for the first time, so I won't reveal it here. Man, the anomalies that Ishii-san designs are so goofy! (Compliment)
Barometz
We also want design lines with a different atmosphere for other anomalies, so in addition to Ishii-san, our main designer, several other designers are involved in this project. This Barometz is an anomaly designed by bee tribe.
According to Kaneko-san's orders, it was supposed to be “A floating sheep with twisted horns. In addition to its deformed body shape, it's also fluffy and soft. In actual battles, it is a troublesome enemy that spreads various debuffs. Only at the moment of a powerful attack can someone see how dangerous its true nature is."
The fact that its natural expression changes drastically when it's attacking is one of its unique points.
You may be able to imagine this from what its name is based on, but although this anomaly looks like a sheep, it's categorized as a plant-type. (Incidentally, the other sheep-esque anomalies that appear as palette swaps are categorized as wild beasts.)
There was also one more comment that Kaneko-san sent to the battle team as an additional note. "It tastes like vegetables when eaten." But that has absolutely no effect on the game at the moment...
Scenario Adjustments
We are constantly adding depth to the text by adding more character information, supplementing story development, etc. Kaneko-san and I have been tinkering around with the text, and sometimes it affects the event planning, which makes Ishii-san angry. However, I would like to continue this work for as long as I can.
In the main character's party, Sigurd is the quiet type, the type who stands in the background with his arms crossed. He lets the youngsters take the lead and doesn't assert himself, so sometimes we find that only Strische is paying attention to him. So we've adjusted things so that Ingram and other party members speak to him of their own accord and pull him into things so that he doesn't get left on his own. But when facing strong enemies, he sometimes goes all-out in true 'chuuni' fashion, so he's a pretty complicated character from a creator's point of view.
Battle Adjustments
Battles also continue to be tweaked in regards to the overall direction of difficulty.
We keep asking ourselves, how difficult should we make the boss enemies and other event battles?
It comes down to the taste of the person in charge, or up to how concerned we decide to make ourselves about modern players, or how attached we are to the anomalies that appear in the game. Even if we leave the parameters the same, the balance of the design can still drastically alter how the game feels to play.
We don't want battles to be one-sided and tasteless, or on the other hand, we don't want battles to always be painful and tedious.
At the moment, we want to maintain that the premise of the game is to use skills and equipment to solve puzzles, so the number of difficult bosses which require serious strategy will be limited to a specific number and placed only at key points in the story in order to make the game more memorable.
From our experience, we know that players always exceed the developers' expectations, so there may not be that much point in trying to force limitations on things.
In the near future, I plan to hold a battle meeting with Hashimoto-san, who is in charge of battles, under the guise of a New Year's party, in order to further refine the content.
＊＊＊＊
That concludes this month’s update. Colds and flus are going around, so we’re trying to take care to not get sick as we continue our daily work.
Please take good care of yourselves as well. See you next month.
Penny Blood Report
Good evening, everyone. The staff behind Penny Blood Inheritors Story Vol. 1 is overjoyed to see how all its readers have been enjoying it. We will keep doing our best to improve the value of Penny Blood content.
It's now available on Kindle. Follow the stories of inheritors as they battle abominations in the shadows of modern history.
PENNY BLOOD Inheritors Story Vol. 1 English Version
Please search using this name on the Amazon site that corresponds to your country.
We started working on Vol. 2 as soon as this year began, so we hope you're looking forward to it. We hope you will keep supporting us through this year as well.
Matsuzo Machida
Message from Hirota-san
Happy New Year 2025. Thank you for all of your support last year. Thankfully, the complete 1.0 version of Penny Blood Hellbound, for which I had been doing sound work, was released last month. I hope you can all give it a try and enjoy its world of sound to your hearts' content.
To commemorate the release, I posted on Youtube a video of a performance of the Penny Blood Hellbound main theme from my September concert.
Nothing has been decided yet regarding a digital or CD release, but I want to find a way to deliver the soundtrack to you all, so I hope you're looking forward to it.
Regarding the sound work for Penny Blood itself, I hope to make use of the interactive sound technology I built up with this game and research even more so I can deliver an even more unique, high quality soundtrack.
I hope you'll all continue cheering me on.
May you all have a wonderful year filled with good health and happiness.
December 2024 Update
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Dec 06, 2024 at 02:56:25 AM
Development Update
2024 is coming to an end. Whenever the staff in charge of updates gets a mail from the production team saying “Here’s the text and images for the monthly update,” they’re always shocked to see another month has passed, and now the end of 2024 is here. It went by so quickly.
This year’s last update comes to you from Ishii.
ARMED FANTASIA December 2024 Project Report
Chief Director Ishii here. It’s December. On my way to work, I saw snow decorating Mt. Fuji in the distance, which made me feel like we’re really in the midst of winter now.
Above: A photo of Mt. Fuji in the distance taken with my smartphone
Luckily, it rarely snows near my office, but sometimes it does and public transportation gets paralyzed, which can be a problem.
Seems like people in Londenium won’t need to worry about things like that since the ground is mostly brownish… I wonder if it ever snows there at all?
I thought about checking with Kaneko regarding this issue, but he’s out in a meeting. The holiday rush is no joke, and our deadlines are also approaching. I’ll check with Sekiya instead since our eyes happened to meet.
Ishii: “Question. Are there places in Londenium where it snows?” Sekiya: “Since it’s westernpunk, we have cold locations modeled after Western-esque situations, but how things look visually will ultimately be up to bee tribe. It’d be funny if it snows as much as it did in “The Hateful Eight.” Ishii: “Thank you for the answer. But enough about that, help me out with this month’s project update.” Sekiya: “What’s the theme this time?” Ishii: “We’ll be revealing a bunch of designs of new anomalies!” Sekiya: “Well, the people who like anomalies will enjoy that. But are you sure it’s okay to reveal so many?” Ishii: “We’ll only be revealing the ones that are okay to show. I picked the safest ones at my own discretion. Incidentally, it’ll include some design art that bee tribe hasn’t checked yet.” Sekiya: “No wonder I don’t know some of these.” Ishii: “They’re still under development, so I’ll let people know that we aren’t sure whether or not they’ll all be implemented yet. Anyway, let’s go!”
■Peluda
Ishii: “The first one is the Peluda. According to Kaneko-san’s order report, it’s an ‘ancient dinosaur from French mythology.’ Sekiya: “Looks like a porcupine to me.” Ishii: “True, since it’s supposed to have thorns, we based its design around a porcupine. Also, since it’s supposed to be a ‘natural disaster-level boss,’ we gave it more of a kaiju-centric design’...although, I honestly can’t think of many anomalies who aren’t ‘natural disaster-level’... Sekiya: “I think any model citizen would immediately think of the Tarasque when they hear the words ‘ancient dinosaur from French mythology,’ does this mean a Tarasque will appear in Armed Fantasia as well?” Ishii: “What a shameless question. You already know the answer to that.” Sekiya: “Well, it is a spiritual successor, after all… (making it obvious)” Ishii: “Back to the Peluda, we’ve been seeing a lot of anomaly designs on four legs as of late, so we decided to make it stand on two legs after thinking about the overall balance. It’s cute to see four-legged creatures standing on two legs, isn’t it?” Sekiya: Oh, like how in that famous portrait of Napoleon (Napoleon Crossing the Alps), the horse he’s riding on is standing on two legs?” Ishii: “Wrong. I was talking about Tamanduas and Red pandas… We haven’t seen many kaiju-esque designs like this thus far, so it was fun to draw this one.”
■Skeleton
Ishii: “Next up is the Skeleton.” Sekiya: “You didn’t design this one, did you>” Ishii: “It was designed by Yoshida-san, who sometimes draws illustrations for the monthly reports. The name is really hard to translate.” [*Translator’s note: This is because the name in Japanese is ‘sukeruton.’ ‘sukeru’ means transparent, and ‘ton’ is slang for pig, but when put together, it sounds similar to the pronunciation of ‘skeleton.’] Sekiya: “It’s an undead type, and I heard that it’s based on a ‘true story’-type horror movie that Kaneko-san saw when he was a kid. It looks really cute.” Ishii: “Incidentally, Yoshida-san stated its charm point is its tail, which sort of looks like a halo, or a mosquito repellent coil…but I feel like Yoshida-san doesn’t understand the connection between its name and its design. The #buta hash tag seems so decisive, it’s kind of scary…” Sekiya: “Regardless of what Yoshida-san thinks, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a horrifying anomaly. I asked Hashimoto-san, the battle director, to make it pretty powerful.” Ishii: “Even though it looks like this? If I’d designed it based on that order, it wouldn’t have ended up like this. It’s so fun seeing other people’s designs.” Sekiya: “That reminds me…I feel like the art team once mentioned that they feel Kaneko-san’s idea of what is “cute” is abnormal, but this one’s properly cute, right?” Ishii: “What are you saying?! All of our anomalies are cute!”
■Vodyanoy
Ishii: “Lastly we have the Vodyanoy, which Wild Arms fans should recognize. It’s Kaneko-san’s nemesis, the kappa.” Sekiya: “True, Kaneko-san always puts kappas in all his games.” Ishii: “According to what he told me, he was attacked by a kappa when he was little, when he was at a local river with his friend.” Sekiya: “Maybe that’s why he always puts kappa in his games as enemies…to inform people about how dangerous they are… But perhaps it’s a facet of his past that we’d better not pry into.” Ishii: “The order this time around was to make it look like an unidentified, creepy entity, so I added a lot of alien-esque details to it. I think I managed to give it a humanoid shape but still make it look very alien.” Sekiya: “In previous games it used kenpo, I wonder how it’ll end up in Armed Fantasia.” Ishii: “We’re still working on that. It moves at high speeds by shooting out water jets from the shell on its back.” Sekiya: “So like ‘water boxing’ instead of ‘drunken boxing’? Ishii: I’m sure the designers will improve its design even more when they turn it into a 3D model, so I’m really looking forward to seeing it in action.”
■Thank you for all your support this year
We’ve revealed a total of 10 anomalies so far, including the three in this update. Kaneko has gone out of his way to make sure Armed Fantasia features a ton of different enemy monsters unlike what you usually see in RPGs as of late. We hope you’re looking forward to battling them all!
December has only just begun, but our 2024 project reports end here. It may be a little early to say this, but have a happy new year, and see you all next year.
Above: A photo of Mt. Fuji in the distance taken with my smartphone
