XSEED Brings Zwei: The Arges Adventure to Western PCs on January 24th

Zwei: The Arges Adventure is officially coming to PC, according to western publisher XSEED, at the end of this month. Following a confirmation back in November, the official release date has been set for January 24th, when the game will be made available on Steam, GOG, and The Humble Store.

Originally published in 2001 by Nihon Falcom, the Japanese RPG follows twins Pokkle and Pipiro as they navigate their way around the floating land of Arges. But they’re not your conventional sort of RPG heroes: the siblings are in it for one reason, and that reason is cash. Hilarious quips and story beats help fill out what amounts to being a fun role playing romp that brings you back to one of gaming’s many “Golden Age” eras. What’s more, both characters (and technically, their pet) are in the player’s control, allowing the player to make decisions for the entire team instead of waiting for NPCs to choose for themselves.

The game boasts a few unique key features, which are:

• SD Anime-Style Characters Inhabiting a Colorful Hand-Drawn 2D World – Boasting beautiful painterly art rife with detail and animations, and populated with an equally colorful cast of super-deformed anime characters who are constantly on the move, the world of Arges feels perpetually alive and energetic.
• Fast and Chaotic Combat Featuring a Plucky Duo of Protagonists (and One Pet) – Fend off merciless enemies in real time with Pokkle’s melee attacks and Pipiro’s myriad magics, and solve puzzles to progress through the game’s many dungeons, all while either flanked by a loyal pet or while monitoring said pet from afar as it goes off on its own adorable little journeys.
• Tongue-in-Cheek Story and Characters Providing Genuine Humor – Pokkle’s terrible puns and Pipiro’s all-encompassing snark combine with quirky NPCs, self-aware dialogue, weird and unlikely locations, over-the-top situations, fourth-wall breaking, optional side-quests, and more to provide a genuinely funny and dynamic RPG experience.
• Food-Based Leveling System Allowing Players to Challenge the Game on Their Own Terms – Eat food to level-up, or hoard your food so you can exchange it in town for even better food down the line that grants even more experience. Will you stay low-level and challenge dungeons well beyond your means for the promise of more level-ups to come, or will you engorge yourself on demand to make the road ahead a little easier?
• Minigames, Music, Achievements, Art, and More, Creating the Definitive Zwei Experience – Play an Ys-inspired typing tutor, an adorable yet savage aeroplane shmup, or a block puzzler that rewards you for not making combos – or maybe just take the time to help guide your pet through the harsh wilderness for various spoils! If that’s not enough, why not try for one of the myriad new achievements, seek out one of the newly illustrated character bromides, or switch out the regular soundtrack for its 2008 arranged version? You can even play the game with Japanese text if you want! Add to that a bevy of control improvements and other modernizations, and you have the ultimate update to this unsung Falcom classic!

Zwei: The Arges Adventures releases on PC on January 24th.

Source: Gematsu