Cult-classics Wild Arms’ and Shadow Hearts’ directors join forces for double Kickstarter

The creators of cult-classic JRPGs Wild Arms and Shadow Hearts are joining forces for a double Kickstarter with two spiritual successors to the original titles.

Earlier this week, the creators of the two JRPGs announced a supposed first for Kickstarter, a double Kickstarter, for two games; Armed Fantasia, a spiritual successor to Wild Arms, and Pennyblood, in turn a spiritual successor to Shadow Hearts. The campaign opens up tomorrow, August 29, and seeks to raise $750,000.

Armed Fantasia is being developed by Wild Bunch Productions, and as reported by RPG Site, consists of numerous members of key staff that worked on the Wild Arms series. The game features “a dramatic story about a group of Pathfinders and their trusted ARMs who embark on a perilous journey across an expansive Westernpunk world hurtling towards destruction.”

You can check out the website for the game here, though you won’t see anything on it until August 30.

Penny Blood is in turn being developed by Yukikaze, and itself features key staff that worked on the Shadow Heart series, which also has a website that doesn’t show anything just yet. This one is “a dark and horrific tale set in the shadows of the turbulent 1920s, about an investigator who confronts the threat of evil during the height of international unrest.”

While the campaign isn’t live yet, you can choose which game you want to back, or both, and there’ll be a range of campaign rewards.

The Kickstarter trailer for Armed Fantasia is already live, and looks like it will feature some pretty classic JRPG, turn-based action, so nothing to unfamiliar to fans of the genre.

It should be noted that it is super unlikely the $750,000 will actually fund both games, and is just a way of gauging interest in them both. Games cost much, much more than that to develop, so don’t use this as an example of how easy it is to fund games.