14 DAY TRIAL // The development team of Tales Studio has started working on an original RPG with a more unique cast. The upcoming Namco Bandai Games title will have as leading men, so to speak, the characters of Sgt. Frog, better known as Keroro Gunso. Based on Mine Yoshizaki's anime and manga, Keroro RPG: The Knight, The Warrior and the Legendary Pirate will leap their way into Japan's DS somewhere in 2010. All of the five members of the fearsome and savage Keroro Platoon will be part of the game.
These ankle biters, frog-like aliens have come to Earth in order to invade, enslave and subjugate the innocent and peaceful inhabitants of the planet, but, for some reason, they keep getting distracted from their mission. Usually, it's either some shining object that distracts these dedicated soldiers, but, most of the time, it's their own incompetence that keeps them from conquering even a water pond, let alone the planet. This time, the Keroros have been ensnared by a gaming console and have somehow managed to get themselves stuck in the games inside. The frogs will have to navigate three different worlds in order to return to the planet they so miserably fail time and time again to conquer.
Each different world in the RPG will have a different theme, these being a medieval, samurai and a pirate one. These mysterious worlds aren't completely unfamiliar to the soldiers, as, for some reason, they keep coming across different characters that they know from back on Earth. Ryuji Ohtate, the head of development, talked about the game with the Famitsu magazine, and said that the project rose from the developers' obsession with Keroro Gunso, but also from the battle system of the Tales that fit so well with the title's concept.
"The Linear Motion Battle System in the Tales series was created in the first place in order to bring the fun of 2D fighting games into RPG battles," Ohtate said. "It's intuitive and keeps battles from getting boring, so I think it's perfect for young gamers. This project got its start partly because we wanted to introduce the LMBS to kids and party because we wanted to make a serious Keroro RPG."
Considering who and what the game's main characters are, as well as the medieval-samurai-pirate mash-up, it somehow makes you wonder just what he meant by 'serious.' The same amount of seriousness can be found in the Tales of Vesperia DLC that features Keroro content. For 500 yen, Japan's players could download a Keroro costume for one of their party members that came with special battle voices and a package deal to boot. The result was "froggy," to put it mildly.