Unchained Blades

Did You Know?

• The game received a total score of 31 out of 40 from four Famitsu critics in Japan.
• In its first week in Japan, the PlayStation Portable version sold 18,256 copies and charted at seventh place, while the Nintendo 3DS version sold 5,592 copies and charted at twentieth place.
• A sequel, Unchained Blades Exiv, was released in Japan on November 29, 2012, but Xseed Games stated it was 'not likely' they would localize it.

Gameplay

The game is a dungeon crawler role-playing video game similar to Wizardry, with a greater emphasis on story. Players direct a party of up to four characters through mazes and labyrinths, defeating opposing monster parties. Enemy monsters can be recruited into the player's party, and each character can have up to four monsters supporting them, allowing a maximum party size of twenty characters.

Development

The development team for this game brought together several Japanese RPG veterans. Toshio Akashi, who directed the project, had previously worked on Lunar, while scenario writer Takashi Hino came from Grandia. Most of the soundtrack was composed by Tsutomu Narita, an associate of Nobuo Uematsu, who contributed a few tracks himself. Each of the thirteen main characters was designed by a different artist, each with their own background in anime and manga. Originally set for June 23, 2011, the Japanese launch was pushed back to July 14, 2011. The PlayStation Portable and Nintendo 3DS versions are very similar, with the 3DS offering stereoscopic 3D and placing the overhead map on the lower screen. On the PSP, the map overlays the main screen and can be toggled on or off. Xseed Games hinted at the English localization through a Twitter puzzle, posting images of a Tyrannosaurus rex, a blade of grass, and a scene from the film Ghost. These clues, read in reverse, pointed to the Japanese title Unchained Blade Rexx. The localization was officially announced in the April 2012 issue of Nintendo Power.