Compile Heart unveils several new RPG projects including a delivery-based RPG, a tactical Touhou RPG, and a Death end re;Quest spin-off
Compile Heart has unveiled many new upcoming game projects as part of their announcement to restructure the management of the company. Starting this month, Naoto Tominaga is Compile Heart's president and Hikaru Yasui as its director. Several RPGs were announced in Compile Heart's future line-up including Todokero! Tatakae! Calamity Angels, Touhou Spell Carnival, Madou Monogatari 4, and Death end re;Quest Code: Zion. Other projects very briefly mentioned were new numbered mainline entires in the Death end re;Quest series and the Hyperdimension Neptunia series.
Todokero! Tatakae! Calamity Angels
The first of the new titles Compile Heart pulled the curtain back on was Todokero! Tatakae! Calamity Angels. Tominaga mentioned that the game revolves around delivery work for its characters and that players will be doing RPG activities as the characters make deliveries. Mugen Souls series and Mary Skelter series character designer Kei Nanameda is working on the project and Tominaga emphasized they wanted to aim for a "slapstick" type of comedy in the art direction for it.
Todokero! Tatakae! Calamity Angels is coming to Japan in summer 2024 for the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. It will be also releasing on PC via Steam at a later time.
Touhou Spell Carnival
Next up is Touhou Spell Carnival, a new tactical RPG that is being developed with Sting (Yggdra Union, Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart). Katsuyuki Hirano is in charge of the title's character designs; he has previously worked on Gun Gun Pixies and Neptunia: Sisters VS Sisters.
The title will alternate between story and battle segments. It revolves around a 30-day spell card battle event known as the Fufu Matsuri. Compile Heart and Sting are aiming to combine the Touhou series iconic bullet hell elements into its RPG systems, such as implementing the shmup's high-powered bombs into them. Battles progress in real-time as well.
Touhou Spell Carnival is slated to release in spring 2024 for Japan on multiple platforms, though the specific platforms it's coming for weren't mentioned.
Madou Monogatari 4
A brand-new Madou Monogatari was announced, Madou Monogatari 4. It is the first proper follow-up from the original release of Madou Monogatari 1-2-3 that originally launched in June 1990 for the MSX2. They are a series of first-person dungeon crawler games made by Compile. The 1-2-3 in the title denotes the three separate Madou Monogatari adventures contained in the game.
Now, Madou Monogatari 4 aims to finally continue that legacy. It will developed with Sting along with Madou Monogatari's current intellectual property holder, D4 Enterprise. Many of the original creators from Compile are involved with project, including Sting's president. Sega will also be assisting with Madou Monogatari 4's development and is allowing Compile Heart to use some of their characters in the game - including several from the Puyo Puyo series.
Madou Monogatari 4 is coming to Japan in summer 2024; no platforms have been announced for it.
Death end re;Quest Code: Zion
Compile Heart is also working on Death end re;Quest Code: Zion, a spin-off that's part of the Death end re;Quest series. It will be connected to the other two Death end re;Quest games.
Tominaga mentions that since it's a spin-off, there'll be new elements that Compile Heart can tackle becauase it's not a mainline entry. Several character designs were shared for the upcoming title. It'll be released for Japan in summer 2024, though no platforms are announced for it at this time.
New Numbered Mainline Entires in the Death end re;Quest series and Hyperdimension Neptunia series
When discussing Death end re;Quest Code: Zion, Tominaga shared that Compile Heart was also developing the next main entry in the Death end re;Quest series. Since it'll take more time to develop, he wanted to release the newly announced Code: Zion spin-off title first.
Before ending the interview with Famitsu, Compile Heart mentioned that the next brand-new mainline entry in the Hyperdimension Neptunia series is currently in development. The last main Neptunia game was Megadimension Neptunia VII, which originally released for the PlayStation 4 in Japan on April 2015.
Production of the game kicked off roughly two years ago as a small group of key staff, such as producer Naoko Mizuno and series illustrator Tsunako, discussed the upcoming game's content. The development team for it now have a clear direction of where they want the project to go, so that's why it's taken so long for it to begin development.