Kaio: King of Pirates
| Kaio: King of Pirates | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Comcept |
| Publisher(s) | Marvelous |
| Director(s) | Keiji Inafune |
| Platforms | Nintendo 3DS |
| Release date(s) | Cancelled |
| Genre(s) | Action-adventure |
Kaio: King of Pirates (海王 Kaiō?) was a video game in development for the Nintendo 3DS handheld video game console. Announced in 2011, it featured over three years of development before being officially cancelled on March 13, 2015. The game had been developed by Keiji Inafune and his company Comcept, and was to be published by Marvelous.
Contents
Story
The game was to be a retelling of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms story.[1] While the premise had been covered by other Japanese video game series, like Dynasty Warriors, the twist with Kaio was that it would be told through anthropomorphic pirate characters, analogous to how Dragon Ball retold the story of Journey to the West in a cartoonish style.[1] The game was to star main character Sangokushi, a penguin, and was to feature over 300 animal characters.[2] Inafune referred to the setting as "the adventurous great ocean where heroes fight for their ambition, justice, and their lives" and described the game's thematically as being about "human appeal... beyond the 'right and wrong' or the 'good and bad'? What is waiting in the end?"[3]
Development
Game development was led by Keiji Inafune, who had been the creator and leader of the Megaman series of games during his time as a developer at Capcom.[4] Upon becoming unhappy working for Capcom, he decided to leave the company to form his own - Comcept - and make more original titles like Kaio.[4] He chose the Nintendo 3DS platform over mobile phones due to his confidence in the relevance of handheld video game consoles. He opted to create a game that would be conducive to playing for hours on end, something he felt wasn't right for mobile phones.[4] The game was once envisioned as the first part of a trilogy of titles[5] and a multi-media franchise.[6] The game had not technically ever outright been announced for English language release, though journalists noted it to be likely due to trailers featuring English subtitles.[3]
The game was first announced in 2011, around the time of launch of the Nintendo 3DS handheld video game console,[7] and was planned to be the company's first game.[3] The game was originally slated for release in 2012, but was later delayed into 2014.[8] By March 13, 2015, publisher Marvelous announced it had been cancelled.[9] They cited "a shifting marketplace" as the reason, leaving the company with less incentive to push forward on development.[5] They also revealed that, over the course of its four-year development, over 461 million yen had been lost, approximately the equivalent of 3.8 million dollars.[10]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
- Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived October 3, 2013)
