First Look: Earth Seeker

Famitsu.com has a first look today at Earth Seeker. It's the same art-only look that's provided in the print Famitsu along with the same high level textual details that don't quite make it clear what the game is about, but it's all we've got to go on at present.

Earth Seeker is an original Wii title from developer Crafts & Meisters, a studio formed back in 2004 by ex Capcom talent, including Street Fighter II designer Noritaka Funamizu. The game is being produced by Enterbrain (in addition to publishing Famitsu, they do publish the occasional game) and will be released this Winter by Kadokawa Games.

Looked at broadly, Earth Seeker is an action game in which you engage in combat with large monsters on a planet somewhere.

The game's story starts as the Earth is about to be destroyed. Humanity has loaded refugee ships with the planet's great artifacts and have fled. However, the ships end up making a crash landing on this planet, and all the artifacts scatter about.

(Incidentally, I'm using the plural "ships" because based off the captions in the print Famitsu article there appears to be more than just one ship.)

Gameplay in Earth Seeker starts 1,000 years after the crash landing of the ships. During this time, the ships' computers have been attempting to remake the planet in the image of the Earth. However, due to the crash landing, the computers were buggy and ended up creating strange plants and animals.

A plant.

The animals are actually referred to as "monsters." They were created by the computers mixing together elements from an encyclopedia, so you'll see, as an example, something that looks like a panther but has a power plug as a tail and a glass shell showing its internals. Other monsters have engines for movement.

Other creature examples shown in the print Famitsu (but not at Famitsu.com) include a pairing of a "dragon" and light bulbs. There's also a creature that appears capable of transformation.

A monster.

Humans weren't the first living creatures on this planet. The planet's native residents are mysterious creatures known as "Guardians." They're not too fond of humans because of what became of their planet in the 1,00 years of monster and plant creation. However, they are big fans of the liquor humans make, and they will help people who give some of the happy juice to them.

It seems that you'll be using these guardian creatures in some sort of battle system. Using the technology from your ship, the guardians advanced quickly beyond their primitive state. They make use of things called "Energy Balls" to fight.

Guardians.

Also playing a part in the game are the ships that crash landed on the planet. Only they don't look like ships anymore. In the 1,000 years since your landing, the ships have fused with the plants that they created and the plants that were originally on the planet. Apparently, there's now poison mixed in with the air, creating environments that may not necessarily be human friendly.

Artwork of one particular ship shows what appears to be something that looks like an Eifle Tower in the center of the ship. It seems that the ship was called the "Star Ship France."

One of the ships.

So how will all this play out in the form of a game? Good question! Famitsu had a four page spread on Earth Seeker, and this is pretty much all that was shared about the game.

Development is currently at 60%, so we'll hopefully get some solid gameplay details in the not-so-distant future.