Level 5 making new RPG

TOKYO--Japanese studio Level 5 just released Rogue Galaxy for the PlayStation 2 in December, but its developers are already working on their next project. Speaking to Japanese site Gpara, company president Akihiro Hino revealed that a new RPG is under way at his studio.

As one might expect, Hino confirmed that the next game will once again be a role-playing game, Level 5's specialty genre. He also said that it will be an RPG with a subgenre, although he wouldn't disclose whether it will be strategy, action, or something else. However, he hinted that it won't be something completely radical, saying that, "for people that love these [RPG] types, this will be a really cult game."

Level 5 has had many ups and downs in its short history. The company made its debut in 2000 as the developer of Dark Cloud, which was published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PS2. Four years later, in the summer of 2004, Level 5 made headlines in the gaming industry when it announced the cancellation of True Fantasy Live Online, which it was developing for Microsoft's Xbox console. Then, that November, it became one of the best-known RPG studios in Japan when Square Enix published its Dragon Quest VIII.