Armed Fantasia & Penny Blood AMA Responses

September 23, 2022September 23, 2022 Orpheus Joshua

The recently kickstarted spiritual successors to the classic JRPG series Wild Arms and Shadow Hearts; Armed Fantasia, and Penny Blood, recently received significant new information via a Reddit AMA.

Wild Arms creators Hiroki Ishii and Akifumi Kaneko answered questions correlating to Armed Fantasia, while Shadow Hearts creator Matsuzo Machida answered questions pertaining to Penny Blood.

View our announcement coverage of the Double Kickstarter campaign.

The newly revealed information for both games is listed below:

Penny Blood’s planned playtime is around 30-40 hours.
Armed Fantasia’s planned playtime has not yet been provided, but they want it to be as long as the first Wild Arms title (30-40 hours)

Spring 2025 is the release year goal for Penny Blood.
Penny Blood and Armed Fantasia are confirmed to be receiving DLC, but specifics have not yet been stated.
Machida would like to make a Penny Blood sequel if reception is favorable and the opportunity arises.

Armed Fantasia has no plans for a sequel.
Penny Blood will have a queer party member.
Penny Blood will have a fully 3D camera

Each playable character in Penny Blood will have different elemental affinities.
Party member roles in Armed Fantasia will alter depending on what ARMs are equipped.
Armed Fantasia’s world feel is stated to be potentially closest to Wild Arms 3, while the variety might be closer to what Wild Arms 2 offered.

Penny Blood’s elements (as in Fire, Ice, etc.) will basically be the same as Shadow Hearts’
Japanese novelist Ikenami Shotaro greatly influenced Machida (Penny Blood)
Penny Blood will have a mature story aimed toward adults, with a greater emphasis on horror and grotesque imagery. Publishers restricted these parts of Shadow Hearts.

Machida wants to expand the Penny Blood IP as much as possible.
Machida wants to balance dark storytelling aspects and comedy.
Each location of Penny Blood will have its own “art-directed” time of day-lighting, such as night-time for New York and more sunset-like in Japan.

There won’t be any rideable creatures in Armed Fantasia, but there will be vehicles, including a “cool convertible car that shows up in the beginning.”
In Penny Blood, there will be no side stories, but there are plans to add flavor text to the monsters. Furthermore, the side stories from the Penny Blood website will be included in the coffee table book.

Armed Fantasia’s theme:

“A big element of the theme is meeting new allies and the bonds you create between those people. The story has them all searching for what’s in store for the future of the world they live in.”