Square Enix's New iPhone RPG Revealed

Square Enix has dabbled in iPhone development, most recently with ports of the first two Final Fantasy games. But its next offering for the platform looks to be a much larger effort.

Revealed for the first time this week in Famitsu is Chaos Rings, an original RPG that promises detailed 3D visuals and a major storyline. Square Enix has some big talent at work on this title, including 428's Yukinori Kitajima as scenario writer, and Final Fantasy VII's Yusuke Naora as character designer.

Even if you don't have a copy of Famitsu, you can get a first glimpse at Naora's character designs by visiting this recruitment page from Wild Arms developer Media Vision. The characters at the page match the characters shown in Famitsu.

The story of Chaos Rings surrounds a battle tournament to the death. Five pairs of warriors from around the world have been forced to Arka Arena for the tournament, and they're being made to fight whether they like it or not. The prize for the winning pair is eternal life and youth.

You'll play through multiple scenarios focused on each combat pair. Only by clearing each scenario will you be able to unravel the full story. Famitsu introduces two pairs, Essha and Myusha (the two pictured above), and Mana and Ayuta. The pairs you don't select appear before you as rivals.

Game progression seems to consist of using special doors to leave the arena and travel to various worlds. In each world, you combat enemies to gain experience as you make your way into the heart of the world, where a final boss awaits.

The battle system is menu based and puts both partner characters on the battle field. When deciding your movements, you can select between "solo" and "pair" commands. Pair attacks cause greater damage to enemies, but opens up both partner characters to damage.

Famitsu's description of the battle system is a bit vague. Screens show battle menu choices for "Solo," "Pair," "Escape," and "Options." It's unclear if you can select specific attacks.

There's also a character growth component to the game. When you defeat an enemy, you acquire the enemy's genetic information, or genes. You can equip these genes to give yourself special powers. When you face off against powerful enemies, the genes themselves grow and earn new abilities.

It looks like Famitsu was given the chance to play Chaos Rings in advance. The magazine's writer was impressed by the movement of the 3D characters. In the gameplay department, the writer was impressed by the touch-based character movement controls.

Regarding the battle system, the writer commented that combat has a high level of strategy. Additionally, when the battle ends, your HP fully recovers, causing each battle to heat up.

Even though Famitsu was able to play it, Chaos Rings is currently with a TBA release time frame.