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Toei Animation Makes Circle Pandemica Smartphone RPG
posted on by Egan Loo
The anime studio Toei Animation (One Piece, Dragon Ball) is developing an original smartphone game for launch in mid-May. The Enkan no Pandemica (Circle Pandemica) role-playing game is set in a modern-day world that has been decimated by a mysterious, new type of virus that turns its infected into savages. The virus has already claimed a majority of the human population, and those who have escaped infection must fight to survive.
Studio Fake, the developer of Sega's PSP game J-League Pro Soccer Club o Tsukurō! 7 Euro Plus, is working on the game. Instead of a web app that players can play by simply pressing buttons, Circle Pandemica is a native app similar to the currently popular Puzzle & Dragons and Monster Strike. According to Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web, Circle Pandemica has a high level of gameplay more akin to home console games.
The game is free-to-play, but players can buy in-game items. The game features characters on a 3D field map. Players create parties of 10 characters to go on a quest, and as the characters each get stronger, they evolve and change appearance. Character roles include seeker, servant, engineer, and guard. Those who pre-register for the game will receive the character Kuon Natsusaka.
Mantan Web reports that by starting with a smartphone game (which can have lower development costs than anime) and then expanding into other media such as anime and manga, Toei Animation is aiming for a different approach than it has taken with television anime. Toei Animation said regarding the game that it will "of course" be conscious of a possible anime adaptation, but it is also focusing on expansion in the Asian market as well.
Toei Animation filed a trademark for "Enkan no Pandemica" on January 17, and then teased the game's website at the AnimeJapan convention in March.
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Images © Toei Animation
Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web
