Dead composer to star in RPG

Nearly sixty years after he sat down at the piano to play chopsticks for the very last time, world-famous dead composer Chopin is to star in his very own RPG for the Xbox 360.

The game's titled Chopin no Yume (or Trusty Bell: Chopin's Dream), and is set three hours before our hero's death, rather uncheeringly. Chopin had a dream, you see, starring all sorts of characters who looked remarkably like they ought to be in a Tales game - or so Namco Bandai would have it, anyway.

Trusty Bell takes place in this dream world, and sees Chopin meeting a young girl named Polka who possesses crazy magical powers. Unfortunately, though, she's not long for this world, and everyone in her home town of Tenuto is frightened to go near her in case whatever she's got is contagious.

Everyone, that is, except her Mum and young chum Allegretto, who is desperate to help Polka - even if that means stealing food and the like. There's also a character called Beat involved, but little is known about him yet.

You can expect a three-character battle system and the option to link combos together. Polka fights off the baddies using an umbrella, while Allegretto gets a rather more useful sword.

Naturally, music will be a big theme in the game. It's being developed by tri-Crescendo, who did the sound for tri-Ace games such as Radiata Stories, Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile and Baiten Kaitos.

Russian pianist Stanislav Bunin has been drafted in to play the Chopin bits, while Japanese actor Leo Morimoto will do the voiceover. Motoi Sakuraba, best known for his work on the Tales series, will compose the game's soundtrack.

There's no word on when Trusty Bell is out in Japan, so who knows when it'll hit Europe - if it ever does, of course.