Wright Flyer Studios will release the command-based time-travel JRPG Another Eden Begins on September 17 for PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2. This upcoming title is a rebuild of “Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space” – a live-service mobile RPG that has been successfully running since 2017.
Recreated from scratch with an overhauled gameplay loop and no gacha mechanics, the new Another Eden Begins is intended to be a self-contained, one-time-purchase game that will help the Another Eden IP expand into the console RPG market, and, most importantly, ensure the game remains playable regardless of what happens to live operations down the line.
Interestingly, Another Eden Begins is not the only prominent Japanese mobile RPG to make such a move. As of recent, there have been examples like Square Enix’s Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent being reworked into Octopath Traveler 0, and Final Fantasy Brave Exvius being reborn as the upcoming Final Fantasy Resonance.
Talking to AUTOMATON, producer Shinnosuke Hirasawa, who oversees both the original Another Eden and the new Another Eden Begins, says he was not surprised at all to see other studios launching similar projects at the same time. The announcement for Octopath Traveler 0 came while Wright Flyer Studios was in the midst of developing Another Eden Begins, and rather than worrying about the games’ concepts overlapping, he felt it “made perfect sense” that developers were arriving at the same decision.
“Live-service games have the inherent issue that once services are terminated, they become unplayable. Also, when a game continues for a long time, it’s common for the scale of development to start shrinking over time,” Hirasawa says, noting that current market conditions have led to the genre reaching a king of “ceiling.”
Given these circumstances, Hirasasawa says his honest reaction to initiatives like Octopath Traveler 0 and FF Resonance was, “Yes, keep it coming!” He goes on to comment:
“I believe creators take pride in the work they’ve created, and I think it’s wonderful when live-service works are released in a form that allows them to remain in the world and keep receiving recognition. It’s good for games as a medium, too, so I’d like to see more and more releases like that.”
Another Eden Begins launches on September 17 for PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2. A demo is available across both platforms.
