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Jaleco, a company I am sure you have never heard of, is currently working on Kizuna, an action RPG for the Nintendo Wii. The game is scheduled to come out this Winter in Japan.

The game’s story focuses on the Kingdom of Navigalia, which has had repeated run-ins with a demon king by the name of Garubalan.  Long ago, in the last great war, the demon king was sealed into a great crystal tree by a hero named Jared and his fellow soldiers.

Suddenly demons begin to descend onto the kingdom once again, in search for Garubalan.  The kingdom must once again protect itself from the demon armies, and prevent the demon king from being freed.

A 17 year old warrior by the name of Leon (Ri-an) steps forward to fight the demons.  He is described as taciturn, indifferent, and apathetic.  An unlikely hero…

Judging by the few screens that have surfaced it appears there are some very large enemies, which Leon must face, and at times, climb up to do so. 

The game’s graphics are what really set it apart from games of the same genre–the main difference being a very unique style of textured cell-shading.

When I first saw these screens it reminded me of a fusion between Okami and Shadows of the Colossus.  A damn cool combo if there ever was one.

Part of the game’s appeal can also be chocked up to the some of the veteran staff working on it, which includes Miwa Shoda, scenario designer for Square Enix–Miwa also worked on Final Fantasy XIII. In addition to Miwa, Youichi Kawaguchi, also of Square Enix, who worked on Dragon Quest VII will be stepping up as scenario and event designer.

If you can read Japanese, or just have some time to kill, I recommend checking out the game’s teaser website here. It’s actually pretty unique: the site times you, giving you about 98 seconds to read a small paragraph by candlelight concerning the games story.  Of course you could always just Ctrl+Print Screen like I did…

The Wii continues to surprise us by offering some pretty cool titles. How the Wii’s unique features will affect gameplay in Kizuna is still unknown, but I am sure it will be fun. 

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