Square Enix making "massive, original action RPG" with Unreal Engine

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 29 November, 2011

Next generation platforms being considered.

Square Enix is using Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 to make a "massive, original action role-playing game", Japanese magazine Famitsu reports.

Dragon Quest 9 producer Ryutaro Ichimura is in charge of the project, which is developed internally at Square Enix and planned for launch on consoles. According to Andriasang, Square Enix is exploring next generation platforms. 35 people are working on the game.

Famitsu revealed illustrations and character art, said to suggest the game is targeting overseas markets. It is made clear it is not a Dragon Quest or a Final Fantasy game.

Apparently Ichimura travelled the world for the past two years and conducted user surveys to research art and gameplay direction for the game. Now, he's finalised the basics.

A formal announcement is expected this week.

Earlier this month Epic announced Square Enix had licensed Unreal Engine 3 to make multiple unannounced games.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (9) Latest comment 6 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Kaonazhie #1 6 months ago

    Square Enix is trying to make Dark Souls? Neat.

  • roquey Verified Lead Quality Assurance Tester and Compliance Specialist, Universally Speaking #2 6 months ago

    Isnt this what NEIR was effectively? Please do a better job than that.

  • darm #3 6 months ago

    @roquey Hey, Nier was perfect for me. The story was great, even made me cry. The variety of gameplay in different 'missions' made it feel pretty fresh, and the core gameplay of 'Japanese sandbox' along the lines of Yakuza or even Shenmue with all that abundance of sidequests, minigames and collectable materials is just awesome, I've never seen less-than-great game using this formula. And even the soundtrack was mind-blowing. I'd call it the best game of 2010 if it weren't for Deadly Premonition. Which, by the way, had even more severe flaws, and yet turned out so great.

    So if they're making another Nier, hey, I'm both hands pro it!

  • menage #4 6 months ago

    Nier was great, stop whining.
    Heck I even thought Last Remnant was alright. At least they both beat the crap out of FFXIII
    Edited by menage at 29/11/11 @ 09:45

  • StolenGlory #5 6 months ago

    "Isnt this what NEIR was effectively? Please do a better job than that."

    What was wrong with NIER exactly?

    Oh and please do a better job with your spelling.

  • metroid455 #6 6 months ago

    just no Square please, while Im very interested in a new JRPG. Unreal 3 and RPG just don't go together!! Last Remnant anyone?

    also NIER was perfect to me, apart form the ridiculously muscular main character.
    better than FF-XIII alright
    Edited by metroid455 at 29/11/11 @ 13:28

  • Raziel #7 6 months ago

    @metroid445
    Wasn't Lost Odyssey on UE3? I thought that was pretty fantastic...
    (Last Remnant sucked though...)

  • Yeoung #8 6 months ago

    Let it be a hybrid combat system, for the love of god let it be hybrid. Rogue galaxy perfected the rpg combat system ages ago, just use that and make it shiny shiny lollipop rainbows.
    Edited by Yeoung at 29/11/11 @ 16:59

  • Jayaitch #9 6 months ago

    Post deleted at 18:50:52 11-01-2012