Coming to PSN this Week: Patchwork Heroes

46 10

Hi Everybody!

This Thursday, March 18, is the release of Patchwork Heroes on PlayStation Network for PSP. As an Associate Producer working on the title, I’m pleased to bring you an inside look at the game from the developers to mark the occasion, enjoy!

My name is Yuki Ikeda, and I am the director of Patchwork Heroes. I am also a part of “PlayStation C.A.M.P.!”, which is short for Creator Audition Mash Up Project. For those of you who aren’t familiar with CAMP yet, it’s basically a new Sony Computer Entertainment initiative to search for people who live in Japan and have an innovative approach to bring unique games to PS3 and PSP systems. Before joining Sony Computer Entertainment, I worked on special designs and models for amusement parks, live theaters, and other fun projects.

The idea for Patchwork Heroes came from wanting to make an action game that was sort of like cutting up paper with scissors, and I ended up pairing that with something very dynamic: giant aircraft and battleships! The basic premise of the game is to use a big saw to cut giant flying battleships into pieces before they come and destroy your town. As you cut chunks off the flying gunships, there’s lots of other action in fighting and dodging enemies, and also saving friends and collecting items.

Check out the trailer to see what I’m talking about!

Having seen the video, you’re probably curious about the unique art style and graphics of Patchwork Heroes. Well, the inspiration behind the art style for the game came from a melting pot of movies that inspired me, blending together to end up with the sort of retro-anime look that you see. A designer on Patchwork Heroes, Seiichi Terashima, said that he was also inspired by the animated films of Yuriy Borisovich Norshteyn, who used cut out paper as a technique.

Thanks for taking the time to check out this fun and unique game. It is an all around blast from the game play and art style, to the music and storyline. The Patchwork Heroes team hopes you enjoy it as much as we did making it!

Yuki and the team has also provided some cool concept art for everyone to check out:

Patchwork Hereos Concept 1


This concept art portrays the world setting of the game. It shows the main character, his town, and the giant airships he’s knocked out of the sky, all done in watercolor paint.

Patchwork Hereos Concept 2 Patchwork Hereos Concept 3

(Left) This illustration was a concept to show what kind of battles would take place on the airships. (Right) And above, All of the characters aboard the air transport, done in colored pencil.

Patchwork Hereos Concept 4

Titori and his ally scaling an airship, done in miniature with clay, colored with paint afterwards.

Finally, here’s the team!

Patchwork Hereos Team!

(from right to left) Yuki Ikeda, director. Miwako Ikeda, character design assistant. Seiichi Terashima, character and world design. Kenta Nakatsuka, UI design and animation

Patchwork Heroes will be published to the PlayStation Store on March 18, and available by download for $9.99. Enjoy the game everyone!

Comments are closed.

46 Comments

10 Author Replies

  • While I appreciate that you are bringing titles over to the US via PSN that might not otherwise come over, I am still somewhat disappointed that no UMD option is available.

    Nevertheless, thanks for bringing this out for us. I will be getting it this Thursday :)

    • We definitely try our best to have all games available for both UMD and download, but sometimes, it just doesn’t work out for one reason or another.

  • Finally something for my pspGo! Thanks!

  • hey espalpsp, heres another one for ya…..sigh

  • looks fun

  • $9.99? Perfect price. Really enjoyed the demo… +1 sale! Now, if I could pull myself away from EoJL…

  • Cool $10 is a steal

  • Wow, I was expecting this to cost more than $10. Well…you cracked it, this will be the first downloadable game I buy for my psp.

  • OH MY GOD, SOMETHING I CAN PUT ON MY PSPGO! IS THIS A DREAM?

  • awesome! Loved the demo, can’t wait to play the full game. Will be bringing my PSP (along with Patchwork Heroes) on my trek to Machu Picchu in a few weeks :)

  • It has trophies,right?

  • Sorry i misread it, i though it was also on PSN/PS3

  • 9.99?!? I was ready to pay more so this is indeed a very pleasant surprise. Thank you!

  • Shouldn’t be calling this a PSN game. Call it a PSP game. There is a difference.

  • Been playing this demo since it came out. Such and awesome game with killer personality. Count me in.

  • Sounds like the team behind this game comes from a unique non-gaming background so its no wonder it seems like a weird title! :p

    Although I have a huge backlog of games, including two more which arrived today (glittey gold & sparkly silver *cough*) I am going to download this first thing thursday whenever SCEA gets around to updating the store :D

  • I really loved the demo, I found myself playing it over and over because of how fun it is, and only $10 for the whole game? Thats a steal!

    You guys really keep the great titles coming, its a great time to be a playstation fan!

  • Notice they didnt use a PSPGo in the preview. Is that the new 4000 series thats coming out this year?

  • The demo was fantastic and at $10 for the full game? AWESOME! The demo enough was awesome. A very interesting and innovative title.

  • I want to know the dark secret this town is hiding. I mean, why send SO MANY WARSHIPS after it if it wasn’t horrifying? *shudder*

  • Sold!

    Please make more original games. I’ve loved both games to come out of the Playstation Camp for PSP (this & Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaikida Or).

  • Thought this was a PS3 game. :P

    Glad it’s a psp game as I just pulled my psp back out from the depths of the dark.

    I will probably give this a shot. $10 is a fair price and the game is really different looking. GREAT job on making something original and unique.

  • Only 4 people worked on this game?! That’s awesome.
    Absolutely beautiful piece of work that I will be happily purchasing.

  • I dont see any final fantasy games YEETTT >:(

    come on sony.

  • where’s Vagrant Storyyyyy??

  • Is there a demo available/going to be available?

  • @T3mpr1x
    Yes they put up a demo for the game two weeks ago. :)

  • im buying it the first day it will come out, it look so good and the demo was awsome

  • I’ve commented about this game before, but I feel the need to share again… When I saw the debut trailer for Japan a few months back, I never imagined that such a quirky title would find its way to the US, not alone 4 months after it was announced in Japan. I was in love with the game and crushed by the fact that I’d never play it.

    Thanks for making a little pipe dream of mine come true.

    • Glad to see you’re looking forward to it. The more attention titles like Patchwork Heroes gets, the more likely we are to green-light/pick them up.

  • I’m ecstatic that this is only $10 – it’ll make convincing my wife to let me buy it ASAP that much easier. :)

  • Now we’re talking… I love the demo and the price is great.
    It’s the first good PSP Go’ game for this year, Great job guys..!!!

  • @Eric Fong;

    You mention I could buy two games. The very second PSN offers a “GIFTING” option, you bet I will support this title with a well placed gift for a most deserved recipient. Maybe you should slide that note over to the Network team. The Wii does it…gifting…make it happen!

    • Ahh, I was saying you could buy this and a different game, but I like your idea of gifting. Will look into this.

  • Some ps1 Games i would love to see come to the network: digimon world 1 2 and 3, final fantasy 9, legend of dragoon, megaman x4, and CHRONO CROSS. i wanna play chrono cross soooo much.

  • chrono cross is first on my list though, then ff9, and then digimon world 2. the others arent as important to me. i would way rather see you guys make a new legend of dragoon. that game was awesome, it had good story, long as hell, i recommend it to anyone who likes final fantasy or rpg. the game would be extremely awesome with new ps3 graphics. i pray to god that they make this game over again or make a good sequel.

  • Oh my god, only $10??? Hot damn, I wasn’t expecting yet another $10 PSP game to come out so soon! I’m afraid that its going to have to wait, though, as I simply cannot spare the money at the moment, but I’ll pick it up eventually.

    Also, could you ask the team to perhaps consider a PSN version? I wish more of these 2D PSP games would get an HD treatment, like Patapon and Locoroco, but they never do, except for the Pixeljunk guys.

  • The demo was really, really fun, looking forward to buy it. I just bought Eye of Judgment Legends so this may have to wait for a few months.

  • This is the reason I bought a PSP. Although the PSP doesn’t have as many games as the DS, the games it does have are much, much better.

    Sold.

  • This is also the reason I bought a PSP.

    I was originally expecting more Square-Enix work for the PSP, but I’ve been very pleased with the things that SCE/Japan Studio has gotten behind, particularly this project, LocoRoco, and Patapon.

    I’ve noticed that I rarely enjoy huge-budget 3D games any more – with a larger team and a larger investment, everyone becomes very risk-averse, which leads to watered-down games. This game, however, is bold, colorful, and very unique.

  • More awesome 2D games from Japan Studio. Sold. I love these games, with their unique art styles.

    Now, we just need a new Patapon and LocoRoco (perhaps on PS3).

  • Sold! :-)

  • i do appreciate all these wonderful games comeing out i have you bring out dead or alive for the psn since i have a psp go and we would love to see more japanese titles comig to the psn over here in th U.S

  • i love sony but i hate having to buy japanese psn yen card’s to get the game’s i want

  • I’ve been playing the demo over and over now… Finally I can play more than just 3 levels! I didn’t even know this came out today, lol.

  • I really want this game but I want to be sure: can you replay levels to get a better score and how many modes are there?

  • I would do terrible things to obtain this game’s soundtrack.

Please enter your date of birth.

Date of birth fields