God Eater 2: Blood Arts System Revealed

We should get a new look at God Eater 2 later this week.

Namco Bandai went into silent mode on God Eater 2 starting around November of last year. But the PSP sequel finally reemerged through a lengthy feature in this week's Famitsu.


So why was there an eight month gap in coverage? In an interview with Famitsu, director Kou Yoshimura and producer Yusuke Tomizawa revealed that the development staff needed the time to conduct numerous trial and error tests with the hopes of meeting user expectations. The quiet period was a tremendous struggle for the staff, as they had to iterate over a development process that consisted of continual creating and destroying. They feel that with the new concepts they've created for the game, they've met and even exceeded expectations.

The game is scheduled for release in 2012, Tomizawa said. However, in order to realize the new concepts, development needs a bit more time. He also promised a big surprise around the Fall.
The interview details one of the main new concepts: Blood Arts. As you make use of your various actions, they'll evolve into more advanced actions. For example, as you use your skills, they will turn to super attacks, and if you use them even further, they will advance to the next level beyond that.

All actions have Blood Arts settings. The Blood Arts are associated with the character, so even if you learn a new skill through your Buster Blade, it can be used with all weapons. Yoshimura suggested that we think of this as rather than just the weapon growing, the player growing as well this time.
You'll find over 100 Blood Arts in the game. Some will require skill to acquire, but in general the arts will be earned naturally.

Tomizawa noted that the Blood Arts system may have an interesting effect on multiplayer. You might see a friend using a skill that you've never seen before, which could bring about communication between players.
Of course, only players who've advanced far enough in the game will be able to show off their Blood Arts during multiplayer. Yoshimura teased that they've also come up with a new multiplayer system that will allow for rookie players to enjoy themselves. Details on this will be announced later.

The Blood Arts system is integrated into the game's story and NPC systems. NPCs are the characters who accompany you when you play missions solo. NPCs will also grow through Blood Arts which they gain through their own character-specific episodes. These episodes are strictly optional and will be presented as the NPC giving you a mission at specific timing. You can take on the missions whenever you please, as they're separate from the main story.

The original God Eater split its NPCs into main and sub type. There's no such distinction in God Eater 2. All NPCs will have character-specific episodes.

Outside of the Blood Arts system, Famitsu reveals that the game has seen some visual changes from when we last saw it. They've changed the look of the visuals in response to fan reaction from the game's Tokyo Game Show 2011 showing. They've also redone the character modeling so that the models more closely recreate the game's illustrations.