RPG Alert! Crimson Gem Saga Ships Tomorrow

Hello there, fine members of the finest official PlayStation community on the internet! I’m Clayton Chan, a Project Lead and Editor at Atlus U.S.A., and I’d like to pop in and talk to you for a second about our upcoming PSP RPG Crimson Gem Saga on behalf of the folks on the team.

Crimson Gem Saga is a turn-based RPG that boasts all the fundamentals of solid, satisfying RPG action that seasoned genre veterans crave, developed by our fine friends and partners in Korea, IronNos and SK Telecom. We’ve heard the cries and clamoring of PSP owners looking for a deep RPG experience, so we’re bringing you one, just in time for the long summer months. Crimson Gem Saga boasts interesting customization for your weapons and skills, powerful combination attacks, and will keep you on your toes with the ever-present threat/opportunity of Ambush attacks and Critical Combo chains. That’s all in addition to a fun script that is full of memorable characters, entertaining events, and fantastic moments that separate the overall experience from what’s already available out there.

The Ambush system will keep you on your toes in a way most standard RPGs won’t be able to match. Instead of just wandering into a random battle after “X” steps on the field map, Crimson Gem Saga allows you to either avoid these battles, or exploit enemies who aren’t aware of your presence. Whichever party scores an ambush will be given a free team attack to start the battle. This can severely cripple the opposing side, which leaves the player with an interesting risk/reward conundrum. Should you risk a protracted battle that will cause you to spend most of your MP on special skills for the chance to score an easy victory on a strong enemy at 75% strength?

The Critical Combo system is another little tweak to keep you on your toes. When you score a critical hit with a physical attack, you’ll have a very limited window (we’re talking a split second) to follow-up with a second and possibly third hit. You’re going to have to learn the timing for each character, because the game doesn’t take kindly to mutton mashing. If you’re on your toes and take the time to learn the timings, you’ll be rewarded with a physical attack that punishes the enemy more than a special skill without spending any of the MP. Crimson Gem Saga is a game that rewards your attentiveness, so you don’t end up zoning out in the middle of combat and just spamming the attack button.

Now for a little bit about our world famous Atlus Localization(TM). The Asian version of this game was already in rudimentary English. Well, rudimentary might be ok for an Asian version, or for other companies, but it certainly isn’t good enough for Atlus. Devin Curry, our lead editor, and our proofreading staff of Jason Ruper, Richard Rodrigues, and Ryan Sharpe made sure that we put out a game script that any fan of ours would be proud of, and to top it off, we even added more than a thousand lines of voiced dialogue to our version of the game. If you want the definitive version of the game, you’ll want to pick up the Atlus release when it drops later this month. When you go to pick your copy up, tell ’em Clayton sent you. It won’t do anything, but just tell them anyways, I like the name drop.

Thanks for tuning in, fans in PlayStation-landia! If you’ve got any questions on the game mechanics, on the game’s localization, or just questions you’ve always kind of wanted to ask about working on a game, feel free to fire them off in the comments, and I’ll reply to what I can. Here’s hoping that you partake of, and enjoy all the hard work the team and I put into this title!

Look for Crimson Gem Saga on May 26th at most places where fine video games are sold.