Origins Of Forbidden Magna And Its "Action SRPG" Battle System

Marvelous, the company behind Story of Seasons and Rune Factory, has a new game where you fight monsters and run an inn with Spirit Girls as maids. Similar to the Rune Factory and Luminous Arc games you can spend time with the girls you work with and that gives them boosts in battle.

"It’s human nature that when you work on the same thing over and over, you want to branch out and do something different. We asked the Rune Factory team if they wanted to create another Rune Factory or if they wanted to branch out and create something else. They said they wanted to challenge themselves with something else and that was the beginning of Forbidden Magna," producer Yoshifumi Hashimoto said to Siliconera when we talked about how the game got started.

Forbidden Magna began its life inside Neverland, the same studio that makes the Rune Factory games and Lufia series. After the studio closed, some of the Neverland staff moved into Marvelous AQL to finish Forbidden Magna.

Hashimoto continued, "Forbidden Magna has an inn with girls in it, but the team is really good at making action games. Forbidden Magna is really an action game without a grid." Before you strike, a red area highlights which enemies you’ll hit. The key to the battle system is to pile monsters into your attack area to get a big combo. Spirit Girls specialize in different attacks like Diana who has a spear that hits enemies straight in front of her compared to Charlotte who has a wide swinging sword.

"Charlotte, one of the characters you meet early in the game, and Lux, the protagonist, are my two favorites," said Hashimoto. "It is more like an action SRPG game. In Rune Factory, the main character can do anything, wield a sword or use magic. In Forbidden Magna, each character has different abilities like long range attacks, short range attacks, or magic more like a strategy RPG game."

Forbidden Magna comes out tomorrow for Nintendo 3DS in Japan. While Forbidden Magna has not been announced for the West, Xseed said they are interested in the title.