Chunsoft reveals new PS2 title, hints at GameCube RPG

TOKYO--According to the latest issue of Famitsu magazine, Chunsoft's 20th-anniversary PlayStation 2 title will be based on a popular TV drama in Japan, 3-Nen B-Gumi Kinpachi Sensei. The show features a hot-blooded teacher named Kinpachi, who tackles a number of social issues prevalent in Japanese junior high schools. A long-running hit in Japan, 3-Nen B-Gumi Kinpachi Sensei has aired through six different series and a number of TV specials from 1979 to the present.

In the game by Chunsoft, also called 3-Nen B-Gumi Kinpachi Sensei, the main character is a rookie instructor named Matsumoto, who has been picked by Kinpachi to teach his class while Kinpachi is on medical leave. Over the course of a year, Matsumoto must teach a class, get to know the other teachers, and solve the personal problems that the students are having. The player's objective in the game will be to safely guide Matsumoto's students to their graduation from junior high. When in trouble, the player can go to Kinpachi for some advice.

3-Nen B-Gumi Kinpachi Sensei's gameplay consists of making decisions based on information gleaned from in-game characters. However, in place of the traditional decision-making screen, the game will use a unique card system. The player can collect cards by meeting people in the game and then use them to interact with the scenario characters. There are about 100 characters with full speaking parts, including the entire cast of characters from the TV show, to be voiced by the original actors.

The game will play with anime-style 2D graphics, and the art staff will include a number of well-known animators, including Ei Inoue (Jin-Roh, Metropolis) and two members of director Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli, Satoko Morikawa (Neko no Ongaeshi) and Kazutaka Ozaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service). 3-Nen B-Gumi Kinpachi Sensei is 70 percent complete and is scheduled for a spring 2004 release in Japan.

The 3-Nen B-Gumi Kinpachi Sensei announcement comes just one day after Chunsoft posted a teaser for its 20th-anniversary GameCube title on its Web site. The game will be a fantasy role-playing game, something that Chunsoft has experience developing. The wording of the teaser suggests that the game will feature a group of children who have been selected to save the world from an evil darkness.

This is not the first time that Chunsoft has worked on an RPG. The company was one of the developers on Enix's Dragon Quest series, the most popular home console RPG in the Japanese market, up to its fifth installment.