Square Enix recently revealed that it was to be bringing a brand new Role-Playing Game to the Nintendo DS that incorporated both mystery and adventure elements into the final product. Called ‘Sigma Harmonics’, the game is set for release during the summertime of this year in Japan and the developer has now started the hype machine by partaking in an in-depth interview with Famitsu.

The interview took place with CHIBA HIROKI (Director of the project and the brains behind major games such as Dirge of Cerberus and Chrono Trigger), KITASE YOSHINORI (Producer and veteran of the Final Fantasy series) and NAKAAKI YUSAKU (the Character Designer and the person behind projects such as Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core, as well as the original Final Fantasy VII).

The main details of the discussion are as follows:

• Square Enix made this game purposely for the Nintendo DS format to take advantage of its strengths and features, such as being able to play the game with the system on its side, like reading a mystery novel;
• Those wondering if it will appeal to them should consider that the game is being aimed not just at mystery game fans, but the traditional role-playing audience as well since the team refused to drop the RPG side completely from the project;
• The word “Sigma” has great meaning that will be unveiled during the game;
• The game’s logo is made up of the Greek letter ’sigma’, a ‘harmonics’ musical symbol and a clock element to represent the machine that is Tokyo;
• The in-game characters are young and cool, but look smart, such as the male protagonist who wears glasses;
• Sigma Harmonics’ rather dark story is divided into separate chapters, which each of them being filled with a new mystery that is normally centred around murderous affairs that are set over different time periods. Players have to solve these mysterious in order to advance through the adventure;
• The game will currently not use the microphone, although the idea was considered at the early stages of development. It was dropped eventually as the idea proved to be too much of a gimmick;
• There will be a “mystery man” that wears black clothing who will reveal himself at around the fifty per cent mark of the game;
• Full Motion CGI Video clips will not be included, with a more stylised painted scroll movie effect being used instead;
• Release date will be sometime during the Summer of 2008.

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