During Anime Expo 2015, Comcept CEO Keiji Inafune and STUDIO4℃ president Eiko Tanaka had a panel. What did a video game designer and anime producer have to talk about? Simple – the RED ASH project. Now that Keiji Inafune has finished up development on Mighty No. 9, he has decided to pull a team full of industry veterans together to start up a new, open world action RPG. Although they never explicitly state it is a successor to Mega Man Legends, many of the team members are the same, not to mention a pretty obvious reference in the video (emphasis mine):
“I believe that we were a little ahead of our time when we first attempted this concept [an open world anime-inspired RPG]. Unfortunately, the project did not see the success or conclusion it deserved.”
As fans will know, Mega Man Legends 3 was unceremoniously canceled during development by Capcom. So, RED ASH – The Indelible Legend is an upcoming game which focuses on three characters who explore the world, fight enemies, and collect awesome loot. Because this project is so early, however, we can only get a taste of the animation storyboards and concept art. Those curious about how it will play may want to revisit Mega Man Legends 1 or 2. Of course, with Inafune’s name attached the Kickstarter should easily succeed over its $800,000 goal. It’s worth noting the fact that this campaign is not for the full game! It is just for the prologue chapter titled “The KalKanon Incident.”
Now, if and when RED ASH – The Indelible Legend succeeds, Comcept will have to decide where to go from there (land a publisher, seek more crowdfunding assistance, etc). Even the stretch goals which have been revealed thus far just focus on expanding The KalKanon Incident prologue chapter. Most episodic Kickstarters tend to offer future chapters via this section, instead. Heck, even releases outside of PC are spurned via the FAQ! Their entire focus right now is creating the prologue pure and simple, without expending funds on other aspects. Perhaps that’s a lesson learned from Mighty No. 9’s development?
So what is STUDIO4℃’s involvement? They are actually making an anime for RED ASH, known as Red Ash THE ANIMATION – Magicicada –. This is actually the animation studio’s first time on Kickstarter despite being an established and well known company in the anime scene. One of the most interesting aspects about these two RED ASH projects is that, while they both include the same characters, they will explore different worlds. This means that the animation is not simply replicating what happens in the game, or vice versa.
At the $150,000 goal, they will make a 5 minute episode. Past each stretch goal they will add a few more minutes. This might seem ridiculously expensive, but consider that high quality animation is expensive to produce. If Red Ash THE ANIMATION – Magicicada – can attain the ultimate goal of $2,480,000 then RED ASH will have itself a feature film. So far, both campaigns should have no issue reaching their base goals. It’s just a matter of seeing exactly how far they will be able to take it, and if fans will favor one project over the other or not.
Track the progress of the RED ASH Kickstarter in our Campaign Calendar.
So is anybody else as uninterested as me over this project? Sorry but they should release there first project before bothering with their next project, especially considering the rollercoaster that Comcept has been these past months.
P.S. Anybody else impressed with the announcements coming out from Mangagamer, Jast USA, or Sekai Project?
Well, didn’t back it and don’t intend to.
A bit for the reason you mentioned but mostly because of the emptiness of the pitch. The days when you could come to KS with only a concept artwork, no gameplay footage or pitch and ask for 800k just because you are known are over.
At least for me they are. I know a lot of people will pledge and be enthusiastic about it. But i won’t pledge for some people who have done the barely minimum with their pitch.
(Response to your PS): Yes, there were tons of great announcements! I am going to be writing about them on various sites since there is a lot of stuff to potentially cover. Unfortunately, probably won’t be able to say anything about them on Cliqist specifically unless more are Kickstarter projects.
True, true! I guess an argument could be made for the Supipara announcement of reaching there first goal, but considering how different of a path that was compared to Patreon or Kickstarter, I could see the Supipara campaign getting passed here on Cliqist.
I’m with you on being uninterested. There wasn’t mutch to the pitch, and frankly I was a little confused by it. And yeah, I would have liked to see more of Mighty No. 9 before they asked for more money. I’m sure they’ll be able to deliver, but Mighty No 9 looks significantly different than the original ceoncept images they showed during the campaign.
It’s interesting that while the Red Ash campaign isn’t doing bad, it’s also not exactly a smash hit.
i am just surprised they just did not do mighty no 9 legends instead
Thank You!!! But there probably holding it off for a rainy day to double dip on there audience.
Marcus jumped back into this with some more thoughts on it: http://cliqist.com/2015/07/12/red-ash-soon-keiji-inafunes-next-kickstarter/
[…] post-Capcom. Will their production be so stunning that folks will kick themselves for not backing RED ASH when they had the chance? Or will it prove that launching that campaign when they did was actually […]