After teasing it a few days ago, Keiji Inafune and his team at Comcept officially announced a spiritual successor to Mega Man Legends at the Anime Expo today.
Unlike a traditional Mega Man game, Mega Man Legends melded third-person shooting with RPG conventions while still referencing Mega Man’s rich history. The third-person shooter/RPG hybrid Red Ash: The Indelible Legend will do something similar by serving as a spiritual cousin to Inafune’s upcoming Mighty No. 9. Like Mighty No. 9, Red Ash will also star two teenagers named Beck and Call with a penchant for robotics and adventure. But that’s where the similarities end…
Danger looms over hundreds of thousands who make the city of Great Slope their home. The Mobile Citadel “KalKanon” is currently on a crash course with this city. At this rate, a major disaster is all but unavoidable.
Gecko Company, one of the organizations central to Great Slope, has prepared a massive electromagnetic cannon christened “The Peacemaker” to combat this catastrophe. They announced their plan to destroy the massive Fortress-City before it reaches the settlement. Great Slope quickly switches from a city enveloped in panic, to one ready to sit back and enjoy the fireworks of the special, once-in-a-lifetime Burning Cannon Festival. However, not everyone welcomes this announcement; particularly the young owner of the Bones Company, Call C. Bones. All Delvers have heard the famous folktale… that inside the belly of KalKanon rests the Legendary Legacy…
Of course, she sends the request for this crazy job to her favorite stooges: partners Beck and Tyger.
Comcept also launched a Kickstarter campaign today to help fund the development of Red Ash. The developer is seeking $800,000 and hopes to have the completed game ready for release on the PC by July 2017. However, a series of stretch goals would expand the size and scope of the game considerably (the first, at $1.3 million, will nearly double it). There’s no gameplay footage yet, but a wide variety of great-looking concept art is available on the campaign page.
A separate Kickstarter campaign has also been launched for a companion anime film, Red Ash: Magicicada, to be produced by Studio 4°C. This campaign is seeking a more modest $150,000, of which $13,000 has already been pledged. The anime won’t be a direct adaptation of the game and will instead explore “unique worlds and stories” with the same characters.
A console release for Red Ash: The Indelible Legend is a possibility, but it may not happen for a while. Writing in the campaign’s FAQ, Inafune and Comcept wrote they “want to first focus on making as good of [a] game as we can.”
