Another Japanese RPG will hit the PAL territories this year, after the distribution agreement between V.2 Play and AQ Interactive. Virgin Play will bring us the AWAY Shuffle Dungeon game for the Nintendo DS and, even though the name makes no sense, the developers promise that the RPG will be nothing less than the "next big thing". We'll see sometime during this fall, when the game is released.

AWAY Shuffle Dragon already has at least three huge advantages (and it is quite good, keeping in mind that there is no actual gameplay footage, no character art, no screenshots released): Hironobu Sakaguchi and Naoto Ohshima are the lead designers of the project and Nobuo Uematsu will be the music composer. If the first two are well-known by the entire gaming community, Uematsu might sound like a new name for you. But it's not, it is one of the best video game music composers in Japan, and you'll get to see that for yourself when AWAY is released (or if you have ever played Super Smash Bros. Brawl or the Final Fantasy games, just to name a few).

The game's story begins in the Webb Village, a place where, for more than a century, people have been disappearing. Yet, there are still a few there and nobody seems smart enough to move the hell away and live a happy life. Anyway, to prove that stupidity has no limits (or just to have a story), 17-year-old Sword has been living in the village since he was 15 (!?!) and he's on the verge of becoming another "AWAY victim". Still, little Anella jumps in the way to keep him from vanquishing and, instead, she disappears, together with the entire village.

Since game characters' hearts are filled with honor, greatness and courage (well, that and the blood that keeps them alive), Sword won't say "Thank God I survived" and move out of the village. Instead, he will embark on a trip to find the girl, the villagers and save the day - and everything will happen in the Shuffle Dungeon. Wow, so cool... NOT!