We’ve gotten the first screenshots for Atlus and Vanillaware’s newly announced Odin Sphere: Leifdrasir, as well as an interview in this week’s Famitsu with director Kentaro Ohnishi.

In the interview, Ohnishi talked up the improvements in the HD remake, as well as some of the bonus goodies fans can expect. The game will not be a simple HD port of the original, as it will be addressing some of the concerns people had with the PS2 original, in comparison to its predecessor, Princess Crown.

“As we released it with slowdowns and other issues, we couldn’t do just an HD version,” said Ohnishi. “We didn’t want to appear as if we thought ‘oh, it’s just an old title,’ so we looked to rebuild it as if it were a new VanillaWare game.”

Ohnishi talked up the new version’s likeness to its original. “However, since there are players that really cherish the original version, we’re including the complete original version in the HD remake [via the Classic Mode that we spotted]. We made it a double-feature.” Cross-save is also mentioned in the Famitsu piece on the game.

“We are including mid-bosses that are not in the original game. They’re called mid-bosses, but they’re more elaborately made than even the old bosses. Old enemies have new AI implemented, so veterans can experience the game fresh. The controls are reminiscent of Dragon’s Crown and Muramasa, and have a more intuitive sense of control.”

Odin Sphere: Leiftrasir is launching across PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PS Vita in Japan on January 14th.