Square Enix Announces An 8v8 Arcade Game For Starwing Paradox By Evangelion And .hack Character Designer

Sunrise recently announced a new project called Starwing Paradox which will have feature characters designed by Evangelion and .hack character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, and it’s getting an arcade game by Square Enix. [Thanks, Hachima.]

Starwing Paradox was announced as a new anime project earlier this month, featuring character designs by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto who worked on the characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion, the earlier .hack series, FLCL, and more recently for animated films like Summer Wars and Wolf Children.

In Starwing Paradox you partner with beings known as “Az-One” from a different planet. Together, you’ll pilot a giant weapon known as “Ae Rial” and participate in 8v8 team action battles. The victors are decided by the side that can destroy the core located on the far end of the opposing team’s base. In order to get to the enemy core, you’ll have to spend a certain amount of time on a “Port” located on the enemy base. Once you reach the core, you’ll have to defeat a powerful enemy known as “Ae Grande.”

So the game objective is basically like a MOBA, but details on the actual gameplay still remains unknown. The game’s development is currently at 75%.

Below are highlights from the interview with producer Yuuichi Tanzawa:

• Development started as a way to work on a new IP for arcade.
• Since Square Enix doesn’t have much experience with mecha, they’ve asked Sunrise for some assistance.
• The reason it is 8v8 is so that more folks who don’t usually play at arcade centers can check it out. The reason for this is because when a game with less players required has been out for a while, it can take a long time for a new player to get their very first win.
• Tanzawa also mentioned that if they can add more players to the game without any problems by the time it launches, it might be fun to have a large-scale war with many players.
• Most titles reward players with points and such for spending more time on the games, but for Starwing Paradox Tanzawa is hoping to implement a system that will have players work towards their own goals and find their own motivation to keep going.
• Rather than make it into something that will just have look forward to fighting against opponents from across the country, Tanzawa wants to make it more of a challenge for oneself.

Starwing Paradox launches for Japanese arcades in Fall 2018.