CRES's Thoughts On: Red Ash or Inafune probably should have released his FIRST Kickstarted game before starting another.

Is it Red Ash, or Re Dash?

This is was just going to be a small update and then I'd write my review, but then I started writing and it just kept getting longer and longer so this is it for this week. Hopefully next week nothing big in the gaming industry happens so that I can actually get on with some reviews. Anyway, last week Keiji "I am Mega Man" Inafune had announced his new project that, once again, he is going to fund through Kickstarter. The game is "Red Ash" and in case you where wondering, yes it looks a lot like the Mega Man Legends franchise.

MegaMan Volnutt, Teisel Bonne, Roll Casket, and a ServBot

Like the Mega Man Legends series, Red Ash seems to take place in a world full of old technology where treasure is found at the bottom of ruins waiting for brave adventurers to dive in and plunder it. And though the game has no thematic connections to Mighty No. 9, Inafune appears to want to keep one tradition of the Mega Man franchise alive in his new games. See the Main Character-ish boy on the left? His name is Beck. And the blond hair girl on the right? Her name is Call. Well, at least the man who could pass off as Teisel Bonne's clone is named something completely different. His name is Tyger.

Anyway, I'm not surprised to see a spiritual successor to Mega Man Legends come out of Comcept, after all it was the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 that caused Inafune to seek Kickstarter as a means of funding his games, and I'm sure Red Ash will be fully funded by the time it's campaign is over. As of writing this Red Ash has raised about $200,000 out of it's $800,000 goal. A lot slower than Mighty No. 9, but that is probably because thanks to the delays and controversy over the course of Mighty No. 9's development, a lot of fans who DO want to see a successor to Mega Man Legends are probably skeptical that 1) The project will ever be finished or 2) Even if it is finished it's not to the quality that was expected or promised. Personally, I think Inafune should have held off on announcing this project until after Mighty No. 9 launched, that way MN9 can be a Proof-of-Comcept and allow more "Becker" to trust that the game will be finished and still hold the standard of excellence that we have come to expect from Inafune.

A little ambitious aren't we?

However, Red Ash isn't just going to be a game. With help of Studio 4 Degree C, Red Ash is also going to have a series of short Animated Episodes following our protagonists. Whether the Anime is going to be a prequel or just independent stories that have nothing to do with the plot of the main game is remained to be seen, but what is going on is that both projects are being Kickstarted separately, with the Anime currently being closer to it's goal with $45,000 out of it's $150,000 goal having already been met. The idea here is that with it's initial goal they are going to do a series of Episodes featuring one story arc, with the other story arcs being the further stretch goals.

Now that I've talked about it here is the big question: Am I going to back these projects? Well, I haven't decided yet. I'm probably not going to back the Anime as it seems less interesting to me on the whole. I mean, I'd still watch it if it does come out, but it's not the sort of thing that I want to throw my money at it right now. As for the game, while I would love to see a true successor to Mega Man Legends, I'm going to hold on to my money until I can see the console stretch goals. The thing is currently the game is only going to be available for PC, and I prefer to game on consoles or handhelds. Now, I'm sure there are stretch goals for these versions down the line, but I didn't back Mighty No. 9 until the 3DS version was a sure thing, and it is likely I won't do the same for Red Ash until the same thing happens. Right now, I'll just have to wait.

For those who are interested here are the Kickstarter pages

Red Ash the Game: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mightyno9/red-ash-the-indelible-legend
Red Ash the Animation: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mightyno9/red-ash-magicicada-by-studio4c

Until Next time,

-CRES, It was difficult finding Images for this game because all of my search results came back with comparisons between Red and Ash from Pokemon.