So Project Phoenix was teased last week, a dream team collaboration between talented Eastern and Western devs – the ulimate JRPG that hails back to the golden era of JRPGs.

The game will be an open world JRPG but the combat will be squad based real time strategy. The game will not have customizable characters, but it will have a rich, non-linear story path. This won’t be a hallway simulator like some other JRPGs to have come out lately!

Now, their kickstarter page has launched. The team behind this project seem to have a lot of passion to really do something different, a JRPG that has the mechanics and player-rewarding mechanics of a Western RPG.

The game is set for a Windows, Mac and Linux release. There will be iOS and Droid ports but those versions will be made specifically for those platforms as the PC version will be too big for them to handle. The devs are looking into a Playstation 4 release specifically as well as “other platforms” but for now, only expect a PC release.

Honestly this is kind of my dream type of RPG, I’ve been stuck between playing games in the genre from both ends of the world and I usually end up not being completely satisfied with either in terms of style and or mechanics, so for others who feel the same way this is the perfect chance for a developer to take the best from RPGs backed by talent from both ends of the world.

There’s a few key things about this project by the way, they are:

• Nobuo Uematsu’s first indie game project.
• Kickstarter’s first Japanese based video game.
• A JRPG for all audiences, not just Japan.
• Talent from all over the world, veterans from various games franchises.
• A blend of eastern and western mechanics and visuals. The game is literally an “east meets west” JRPG.

Here is the team so far:

• Hiraki Yura (Japan, Australia) – Director and Producer – Credits include Diablo III, Valkyria Chronicles, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzimiya, and Steins;Gate.
• Unannounced (?) – Lead Programmer – Been a programmer since primary school, made a game engine and has worked on creating several current and next-gen console games. He will be announced later in the game’s development process, and is boasted as “one of the leading Unity programmers in the world.”
• Vaughan Smith (Australia) – Game Designer – Credits include L.A. Noire and more indie game titles.
• Yoko Enoki (Japan) – Scenario Writer – Credits include The Dragon and the Magician series, The Black Knight series, The Legend of Umiberi series.
• Bill Benfield (UK) – Senior Editor – Served as a teacher, translator, writer, and editor in Tokyo, as well as a part-time musician, and currently owns sound production company Dagmusic.
• Unannounced (Japan) – Supervisor – Credits include “some very famous anime that everyone knows.” This person will be announced at the release of the game.
• Kiyoshi Arai (Japan) – Art Director / World Concept Artist – Credits include Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy XIV, and Bloodmasque.
• Gontaro (Japan) – Lead Artist – Received art training at New York’s Art Asylum, and has worked as a 2D and 3D artist at Acquire on the Tenchu series.
• Take-B (Japan) – Character Designer / Monster Designer – Credits include “some very famous JRPG that everyone knows.”
• Koya Takahashi (Japan) – Lead Cinematic Artist – Credits include multi-award winning cinematic artist and illustrator for TV and other multimedia.
• Steffen Unger (Germany) – Lead 3D Modeler – Credits include Halo 4 andCrysis 3.
• Nobuo Uematsu (Japan) – Lead Composer – Credits include the Final Fantasyseries, The Last Story, Lost Odyssey, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He also founded the music groups The Black Mages and Earthboudn Papas.
• John Kurlander (US, UK) – Sound Engineer – Credits include The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Assassin’s Creed II.
• Donna Burke (Australia) – Casting, Voice Acting, and Singer – Credits includeMetal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, andMagical Girl: Lyrical Nanoha.
• Larry Oji (US) – Community Team – Credits include Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Deus Ex: Sonic Augmentation album.

Seriously I’m pretty much gushing over the game here, the music alone on the kickstarter page is AMAZING. You guys really have to check out the music on the page.  For now they are only planning on a single player game, although they do have multiplayer stretch goals. Honestly, I’m fine with the game remaining a single player game – but you guys know that I hate multiplayer (haha).

The kickstarter already has more than a quarter of its funding and it hasn’t even gotten past its first day, not only will this game be funded but they will probably hit a lot of their stretch goals. I really hope they do well and can really make this as fully realized as possible to their original vision.