XSEED Games has made yet another announcement revealing two new games and their E3 lineup. This time they've stated that they are bringing the classic RPG Lunar: Silver Star Harmony for the PlayStation Portable to North America. This title is being spearheaded in development by Game Arts in Japan and is scheduled to be released later this fall in Japan as well as North America. 

Half-Minute Hero is labeled as an unorthodox approach to traditional RPGs. It combines storytelling and engaging characters into a faster paced adventure against a countdown clock to destruction. This PSP title will also be released later this fall. 

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony and Half-Minute Hero are joining a handful of other games for XSEED's E3 showing: 

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony - PSP
Half-Minute Hero (Yuusha 30/Hero for 30Sec.) - PSP
Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon - Wii
Arc Rise Fantasia - Wii
Little King's Story - Wii
Ragnarok Online - DS
Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga - Wii

http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q2-2009/052909b.html

                                                     Official PR:

Independent-Minded Game Publisher to Showcase Stellar Portfolio of Titles on Wii and Popular Handheld Systems

XSEED Games today announced that Lunar: Silver Star Harmony and Half-Minute Hero, both for the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) handheld entertainment system, are currently in development and will be among the company’s E3 2009 lineup. XSEED Games will showcase titles for the PSP as well as both Nintendo platforms, the Nintendo DS™ and Wii™, at E3 2009 which will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center from June 2nd-4th.

“This is going to be an especially exciting showcase for XSEED Games as we just announced new titles that represent what our fans have been asking for,” said Jun Iwasaki, President of XSEED Games. “We are especially excited to be releasing them in the North American market and look forward to supporting our growing fan base”.



Lunar: Silver Star Harmony PSP
While everything is calm on the surface, the world of Lunar is slowly devolving into chaos. The legendary Dragonmaster Dyne and his faithful companions have faded into obscurity only to have a shadowy figure known as the Magic Emperor begin to wreak havoc on the world created by the Goddess Althena. Meanwhile, in a small, humble village far removed from the turmoil in Lunar, lives a young man named Alex. As one who idolizes the legendary Dyne, Alex dreams of one day becoming the next Dragonmaster and matching the accomplishments of his life-long hero. Egged on by his childhood friend Ramus and with his adopted sister Luna in tow, Alex heads off on what seems to be a meaningless adventure, unaware that it would be the first step in an epic journey with the fate of the entire world at stake.

Since it debuted over a decade ago, Lunar: Silver Star Story has continuously captivated fans with its timeless tale of love, betrayal and redemption, expertly woven into its involving gameplay and cinematic presentation. The classic masterpiece has now been reborn on the PSP as Lunar: Silver Star Harmony with all new graphics, added gameplay features, and a re-mastered soundtrack so a whole new generation of fans can experience this legendary first entry of the Lunar universe, while added story elements are sure to intrigue returning fans alike. This title is being developed by Game Arts and is scheduled to be released Fall 2009 exclusively for the PSP.

Half-Minute Hero PSP
For centuries, an epic battle between humans and evil lords has been raging and destroying everything in its path. The civilized world is under attack by the relentless evil lord and all that remains are ruins of castles and the bodies of faithful knights who once proudly protected them. Throughout time, heroes and legends have risen above the chaos, only to eventually disappear into the ashes. As the last wandering sage and final hope for humanity, it is up to the protagonist to somehow transcend time and death to unite these legends and their unique powers in one last battle against the Ultimate Evil Lord.

An unorthodox approach to traditional RPGs, Half-Minute Hero combines adventure, an epic storyline, legendary characters and a punishing countdown clock to destruction, to create an adrenaline pumping experience that will blow past conventional fantasy games. Choose between four modes of accelerated gameplay, each complete with original quests, enemies and attacks. Hero Mode consists of random battles with classic RPG leveling-up elements, Evil Lord Mode involves a high degree of strategy to summon the appropriate monsters against the varying oncoming enemies, Princess Mode involves fast-paced shooting action as you guide the princess safely to and from her castle, and Knight Mode challenges the player to protect the sage in any way possible, including carrying the sage away from danger, clinging to monsters to halt their movement, or even throwing yourself at enemies to cause physical damage. Each of the gameplay modes contains 30 stages in which players have 30 seconds, or a half-minute, to complete their tasks. Retaining the charm inherent in classic RPGs, Half-Minute Hero is a breakneck foray into an ancient land of monsters and magic, 30 seconds at a time. XSEED Games partnered with Marvelous Entertainment USA to secure the North American rights to publish and distribute Half-Minute Hero. This title is being developed by Opus Studio and is scheduled to be released Fall 2009 exclusively for the PSP.

Haha, with all the recent stuff they're doing, XSeed are the true inheritor of the Working Designs glory. Let's hope they don't up the same way...

Half-Minute Hero? Hero for 30 seconds sounded better. Still, that game looks intriguing, I'm interested in it, glad to see it's being localized

I like XSEED, we get all these lovely JP PSP and Wii games, and we get them reasonably fast.

Use your words zexen! use your words!

Oh, and as a side request, please don't try to update the name of the game Yuusha 30 till it has Japan sales, I want to avoid a duplicate being created.

It's bad when you hit the post button accidentally...you're forced to make some intelligent post in a thread you didn't expect to....

RPGamer have an interview with the developers of Lunar: Silver Star Hatmony:

What was first hinted at in part of our Little King's Story interview is now a reality, as XSEED Games is bringing Lunar: Silver Star Harmony to North America later this year. XSEED Games was kind enough to coordinate an interview with Game Arts for us, and while he couldn't reveal too much about the game yet, Development Producer Masato Dobashi still had a lot to say about this upcoming reborn classic.First off, Lunar has had many developers over the years, who exactly is handling this? GameArts? Japan Arts Media? A combination?
Masato Dobashi: This title is a collaborative development effort between Game Arts and Japan Arts Media.

Will combat allow for characters to move around like the original or are they stationary like in Lunar Legend? Could you share any other details about the game's battle system?
Masato Dobashi: Lunar: Silver Star Harmony is basically a remake of the Sega Saturn version. The battle system is also based on the Sega Saturn version, but the graphics have been updated significantly.

During battle, you can manually instruct your character to run up to the enemy to attack, or you can let the AI take over.

Lunar's always been big on music and sound. How much voice acting will there be? Should we expect more songs such as Luna's Boat Song? Any drastic soundtrack changes or is Noriyuki Iwadare still at the helm?
Masato Dobashi: Since this time the title is on a UMD with large capacity, we will have the same movies that were played on the Sega Saturn version. This means you will be able to enjoy Luna's Boat scene as well.

Regarding the soundtrack, of course we will have Iwadare-san continue to work on Lunar. Iwadare-san has made some extra arrangements for this game and created some great music.

This one could be a deal breaker for me. Will there be bromides?
Masato Dobashi: That's still a secret. Please stay tuned.

So, does this perhaps mark a Lunar series revival or just another chance for newer gamers to play this classic?
Masato Dobashi: It's a bit of both. That way everyone can enjoy it, right? I'm personally looking forward to how the Lunar series is going to develop in the future.

The last remake of Lunar on the GBA wasn't as well received by fans as the Sega CD and PlayStation versions. What aspects of Lunar: Silver Star Harmony will appeal to new fans? Long-time fans?
Masato Dobashi: I really think the opinions of Lunar fans towards the series is very important. For this PSP remake, I really wanted to use the Sega Saturn version as the basis to create a solid title because it was also what everyone was hoping for [in Japan].

For the new fans, I would love for them to experience an adventure full of dreams and hopes. Don't you feel like we're lacking those types of RPGs lately? I really wanted to show why Lunar has been loved for 17 years with this new PSP version.

For the old time fans, I would first like to say thank you to everyone. The reason Lunar can be played on the PSP now is because of their long time support and love for this series. For this version, Kei Shigema has put extra effort into the scenario and created a new episode to make it a more complete version of Lunar.

How does XSEED plan on handling the game's quirky humor and sexual innuendos? That was one area that really stood out for me in the prior releases.
Jimmy Soga, XSEED Games: We're still in the early stages of translation so it's hard to say how we will handle it, but it would be a fine balancing act between keeping the original Working Designs English translations as is or to retranslate some of the stuff to be more true to the original Japanese. Working Designs did an excellent localization job, but their text has a lot of 90's pop culture references and possibly some copyright issues that might have been okay when the original was released, but something we need to be more careful about today (such as "Tootsie Rolls", "M&M's", "Wheaties," etc.)

Working Designs was looked on as the North American parent of the Lunar series and always had tons of bonuses (and tons of delays) included with the games. Any early ideas of how you'd like to handle pack-ins?
Masato Dobashi: We are currently discussing with XSEED on this matter so we can't give out any information at this time, but please stay tuned for more details at a later time.

Thank you very much for this opportunity!

We hope everyone is looking forward to the PSP Lunar and will continue to support the series.



RPGamer would like to thank Ken Berry and Jimmy Soga at XSEED Games for helping to coordinate this interview, as well as Masato Dobashi from Game Arts for taking time out to answer these questions for us. Lunar: Silver Star Harmony will be released later this year for the Sony PSP.

http://www.rpgamer.com/features/2009/road2e3/lunarhotssint.html

Is Lunar Silver Star Harmony a remake of Lunar: Silver Star/port of Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete?

Here's what Game Arts producer had to say:

Masato Dobashi: Lunar: Silver Star Harmony is basically a remake of the Sega Saturn version. The battle system is also based on the Sega Saturn version, but the graphics have been updated significantly.

During battle, you can manually instruct your character to run up to the enemy to attack, or you can let the AI take over.

OP updated with the official PR.