SEGA teases new RPG

By Robert Purchese Published 7 August, 2009

Is it Phantasy Star Zero?

SEGA has launched a website to tease the reveal of a brand new role-playing game. The curtains go back on 20th August.

Let's look at the clues. To the right there's a big spinning white clock mechanism that may also be a classic wooden ship wheel, and behind the date there's a silhouette of a woman striking a ridiculous pose. A man with a spear has been spotted, too.

The URL - newrpg.sega.jp - suggests it's an RPG, if you ask us.

Eager SEGA forum members think all signs point towards a new Phantasy Star Zero game. One chap even pulled some HTML code out that contained the letters "pso" from "gxnovmwigswpsojqjwuf", which is a bit desperate.

It's probably not Sonic, though.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (43) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • johnboy_johsnon #1 3 years ago

    Spinning ship wheel? Skies of Arcadia perhaps?

  • Aretak #2 3 years ago

    It won't be Skies of Arcadia. Now, or ever.

  • NegativeZero #3 3 years ago

    Skies of Arcadia would be too good a game for Sega to be possibly considering actually doing it.

    And if they were they probably would sit on it and never release it outside Japan.

  • BillyBrush #4 3 years ago

    well 20th august and ye shall find out

    one things for sure, it's not going to be Shenmue3

  • BillyBrush #5 3 years ago

    ...to me...it doesn't suggest Skies of arcadia

    could be anything tbh

  • RedPanda #6 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • Artemus #7 3 years ago

    Skies was the first thing that popped into my mind.

  • Nova5lag #8 3 years ago

    Phantasy Star Zero DS ever make it to the UK?

  • Vistrix #9 3 years ago

    An obvious Skies of Arcadia reference.

    Its too obvious though.

  • Cosmopolitan #10 3 years ago

    @NovaSlag: No, it's not out even in the US, yet.

  • VicViper #11 3 years ago

    That looks very ship wheely to me and the character looks vaguly like the designs from Skies of Arcadia.
    I'm going with Skies of Arcadia on this one.

  • darkmorgado #12 3 years ago

    PLEASE BE SKIES OF ARKADIA!

    Massively underrated game. Was brilliant on Dreamcast. Was even better on the Gamecube.
    Ah the good old days.

  • Sylpharion #13 3 years ago

    I sincerely hope it's Skies of Arcadia 2. The first one was an amazing game IMO. One of my favourite RPG's of all time.

  • Cosmopolitan #14 3 years ago

    People seem to forget how annoying a-random-battle-every-two-steps can be ;-)

  • Arcadiian #15 3 years ago

    I hope it's NOT Skies of Arcadia. I love the original, it's my favourite game of all time. But a sequel is a difficult task for anyone, never mind the SEGA of today. They can't even get Sonic right. I love SEGA, but I don't think they're creatively ready. If it is SoA2 I hope they'll prove me wrong, but I said that about Sonic Unleashed.

  • schnide #16 3 years ago

    Is it Yuji Naka and The Pit of Desperation? You play Yuji, whose backstory is of a talented game developer who comes up with some titles that gamers really love. Your earlier titles sell really well and then you come up with an obscure QTE RPG that costs a lot to make but doesn't do quite the numbers you want to.

    The game starts when you let the company who owns the rights to your games start pissing them up the wall, so you have to wander the streets of Japan trying not to let anyone see your face just in case they might think you're responsible for Sonic & The Golden Turd or Sonic: Soggy Biscuit Party.

    There's a mini-game where you have to show interest in the company's latest announcement around one of your favourite IPs. If you start to believe the game might actually be good, a hand comes out of the TV and will punch you in the nose.

  • RedPanda #17 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • schnide #18 3 years ago

    The 360 version is one of the first to come out and will retail £5 cheaper than the PS3 version but you have to pay 3600 MS points to unlock the main playable character.

    The PS3 version will be out on time and run at half the frame rate of the 360.

    The Wii has a version coming out two months later but will be an on-rails shooter.

    The PC version will come out shortly after it's released for the Spectrum ZX and Virtual Boy.

    No-one buys it, and it gets poorly reviewed. SEGA announce a sequel.

  • Scimarad #19 3 years ago

    I'd love a DECENT sequel to Skies of Arcadia but I really don't trust Sega considering how many times they've failed to make a decent Shining Force game. Or failed to make a proper JRPG Phantasy Star game, come to think of it.

    Anyway, I don't think Overworks even exist anymore.

  • mingster #20 3 years ago

    It'll be a sonic bukake game.

  • GundamJehutyKai #21 3 years ago

    Will probably be wrong but I'm with the majority and pray for a decent Skies of Arcadia sequel!!!!

  • crazyhorse174 #22 3 years ago

    I say 100% its a Phantasy Star game. The spinning wheel isn't a ships wheel - at first I thought it was a compass, but I think its a graphical effect that they've used on previous PS games in the intro (well PSO and PSU). I can't remember exactly what it is in the intro - possibly something spinning around a ship or something.

    And theres a white graphic that moves along in the background - from right to left - that looks a bit like the menu stylings in PSO and PSU. Not sure about the figure though...

  • aniki Verified Web Developer, YoYo Games Ltd #23 3 years ago

    As much as I'd love this to be Skies of Arcadia 2, I don't see anything on that page to suggest Blue Rogue involvement. In fact, the weird circuitry-esque lines behind the characters seem at odds with Arcadia's design. It could turn out to be Silvite in a kinder universe, but PSO seems much more likely.

  • dudefella #24 3 years ago

    Skies of Arcadia was developed by Overworks. Which is now part of SEGA Wow, responsible for House of the Dead 4 and All Japan Pro Wrestling 3.

    So no, even if it is Skies of Arcadia, let's all assume the worst.

  • aine #25 3 years ago

    I just hope that, whatever it is, it gets released outside of Japan. AHEM 7th Dragon.

  • Spuzzell #26 3 years ago

    Skies of Arcadia!

    I join the pleading horde on this. The downs syndrome dancing silhouette reminds of Aika, and that could be a ships wheel.

    But it won't be Skies, will it.

    It'll be shit. In a box. And we shall cry.

  • lord_jamie #27 3 years ago

    Please be Shining Force. And please be good.

    Not based on anything other than wishful thinking though!

  • schnide #28 3 years ago

    Hopefully if we all stop mentioning Skies of Acardia (oh how I loved you) and any other games we used to love then Sega won't try and make a sequel and further ruin our memories of it.

    Somewhat related, how is it that so many of us know that Iron Man 2 is going to be shit, but at no stage in the process does anyone involved in it try to make it good? How is that possible?

    Also see: GI Joe.

    Edit: The games I mean, Iron Man the movie rocked. Although we all know that 'Joe is going to be a steaming turd.
    Edited by 1 at 07/08/09 @ 16:17

  • WinterSnowblind #29 3 years ago

    The wheel and even the line patterns in the back definitely suggest Skies of Arcadia, but at the same time the patterns could be for Phantasy Star, and the character designs certainly fit with that better, although I think we can assume they'll likely use a new style for Skies of Arcadia if they do make a new one..

    So who knows, either way I'm interested. I'll buy a new Skies of Arcadia even it sucks and has been completely butchered, and I'm always up for some Phantasy Star loot hunting.

  • FireMonkey #30 3 years ago

    "One chap even pulled some HTML code out that contained the letters "pso" from "gxnovmwigswpsojqjwuf", which is a bit desperate."

    Too right that's desperate! If we are going to do that then the code also has Nov and Wigs in it. Whilst I'm at it RPG has another meaning too, Rocket Propelled Grenade.... so I think that whatever it is it'll contain an army of wig wearing terrorists wielding RPGs and will be released sometime in November!

  • schnide #31 3 years ago

    It's PSO. Look at the animated background motif that flashes through every couple of seconds - that's a PSO graphic.

  • crazyhorse174 #32 3 years ago

    "It's PSO. Look at the animated background motif that flashes through every couple of seconds - that's a PSO graphic. "

    +1

    Exactly what I said above!

  • UKLL #33 3 years ago


    Looks like Phantasy Star to me, they used a similar spinning graphic on both PSO and PSU.

    Maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part, I spent hundreds of hours on PSO and PSU and would love a new game, the portable games do look good but I don't fancy playing online hunched over the tiny screen of my PSP or DS for hours on end (not comfy!).





    Edited by 1 at 07/08/09 @ 17:47

  • WinterSnowblind #34 3 years ago

    @schnide
    Like I said in my post, that could well be PSO, but it also looks very similar to the Silvite architecture used in Skies of Arcadia.

    Unfortunately, I can't find any decent pictures of it, but the markings on Fina's dress were also very similar to it.
    [link url=http://soaworld.rpgplanet.gamespy.com/images/ondeck.gif
    ]    http://so aworld.rpgplanet.gamespy.com/im...[/link]

    Again, the character silhouettes definitely make me lean towards either Phantasy Star or Shining force, but we can at least hope..

  • Incarta #35 3 years ago

    Yep. Very Phantasy Star if you ask me. Best way to check if it's for Phantasy Star Portable 2 is to see if an official japanese site already exists or not. If it doesn't, this teaser site will more then likely be it.

  • N.A.T.O #36 3 years ago

    Please, for the love of God, be Shenmue 3. Please. (Starts to cry.....)

  • yagisencho #37 3 years ago

    A sequel to Eternal Arcadia was my guess as well.

  • Sunyavadin #38 3 years ago

    Schnide - I WOULD BUY THAT GAME.
    But alas, it would be far too good for today's Sega to even think of making it.

  • CliveJames #39 3 years ago

    Shnide - Yu Suzuki I think you mean...

  • orakio #40 3 years ago

    Panzer Dragoon! :-)

  • schnide #41 3 years ago

    @Clive

    Shhhhhh!

  • Devox #42 3 years ago

    hmmm, I think every RPG fan prays this is Arcadia 2 but i think its likely to be another "Re-imagining" of Shining Force as an action RPG Puzzlerplatform game

  • Smoped #43 3 years ago

    FINALLY a Sonic RPG!!!