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[Parakeetman]

New teaser trailer (14th) and official site for Nippon Ichi Software's new Dungeon RPG "Coven and the Labyrinth of Refrain" went live today.
Game is for the PS Vita and will be released Jan 28th 2016 in Japan. (Homepage still does not reflect that official date yet for whatever reason, they must have finished the resources before the release date announcement.)

Teaser Trailer

Coven and the Labyrinth of Refrain - Official Japanese Site

Small bit of info thanks to Gematsu.

Coven and Labyrinth of Refrain is set in Refrain, a town where there is a cursed underground labyrinth where people cannot survive very long. A certain witch comes along and volunteers to explore the labyrinth. The player is a legendary book called “Youro Rekitei.” Together with the witch, your owner, you’ll challenge the dungeon. The player cannot fight, so the witch will make dolls (which you’ll customize in character creation to form your adventurer party) to fight instead.

The game is due out for PS Vita in Japan on January 28.

Some screenshots from the JP game site Inside Games
http://www.inside-games.jp/article/2015/10/15/92083.html

Game will also have a LE version on release which will contain a 2 CD soundtrack, Deck of 22 Tarot Cards, Special Box.

*First print bonus appears to be a custom theme at the moment.

 

[Saphirax]

I like some of these monster designs. However character portraits seem a bit out of place and too big.

 

[Parakeetman]

I like some of these monster designs. However character portraits seem a bit out of place and too big.

Thats due to the separation of the main characters and the dolls are represented by the smaller icons is what it seems.

The normal characters can have a set number of dolls under their command. Which is why this game is flaunting a large party number as one of the main features with this system.

Ok I see what it is, had made a mistake earlier from the Dengeki issue where it showed what looked to be 5 characters. What that picture is, is the 3 "Player" characters and 2 dolls. You can see what Im talking about in the First Screenshot, Second Row. Reading the OHP says that the party can be made up of 3 "Player" characters and each of those can have X amount of dolls.

 

[MaxwellParrish]

Is the teaser recent? 'cause it looks as they are not that far working of this game.
the screens seems more advanced, but the teaser doesn't look like one of a game who is going to be published in three months, more or less

 

[Parakeetman]

Is the teaser recent? 'cause it looks as they are not that far working of this game.
the screens seems more advanced, but the teaser doesn't look like one of a game who is going to be published in three months, more or less

Just was released today along with the opening of the official homepage. Yesterday actually the 14th.

Since its still a while off, gives them time to work on more promotional material. At the moment would imagine they are busy with doing stuff for Yomawari that releases at the end of this month. (29th) In general this isnt too different when Japanese game companies show off teasers initially. So not too worried. And thankfully the official HP went live, since earlier this morning was wondering why did we get new news on the game but the OHP was still the teaser version. Went live around the afternoon it seems.

 

[Saphirax]

Thats due to the separation of the main characters and the dolls are represented by the smaller icons is what it seems.



The normal characters can have a set number of dolls under their command. Which is why this game is flaunting a large party number as one of the main features with this system.

That makes more sense. Curious to see how the game turns out.

 

[18-Volt]

Looks like Nippon Ichi's own Etrian Odyssey. I'm interested.

NISA! Localize your damn games!

 

[Ken]

Kind of neat that character sprites pop out and "attack" the enemy rather than just a "whack!" effect.

Somewhat interested.

 

[Safeto20Scroll]

Now this looks like a dungeon rpg that I'll play :0
Will keep an eye on this

 

[Mozendo]

Sweet, hope this comes out in the west.

 

[2+2=5]

The trailer reminds me of Dragon's Crown's credits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0L_Rh4r-Fc

 

[Parakeetman]

In another thread AniHawk also brought up a good post that I agree with. Did not think of it from that angle at all.

the harada artwork makes me think it's one of their most serious efforts - they tend to only use him for bigger titles.

Sweet, hope this comes out in the west.

With what AniHawk said above and do think? that the NIS titles which featured Harada's work came out in the West, might be a sign this will too. That and its looking like NIS wants to carve out their own niche with the DRPG genre, seeing how they are trying to change things up with game mechanics which is appreciated. So really am hoping this turns out to be good as so far its looking quite interesting.

 

[LifeBrandRobot]

Vita sure does get a lot of DRPGs.

 

[Parakeetman]

Vita sure does get a lot of DRPGs.

DRPGs in general have always seemed to fair better on handhelds than consoles for whatever reason since making the shift. Think the largest is they work well with the suspend functionality handhelds have for short bursts of gameplay or long sessions.

The Vita benefits a bit more over the 3DS since folks can play it on the Vita TV if they want.

But for the most part ever since the PSP and DS came out the genre kinda shifted off of the PS2 onto those and stayed there.