A new trailer for Touken Ranbu Warriors dropped overnight, and alongside an overview of game systems and introduction of a mysterious new character, there’s a preview of a beautiful opening theme by Akiko Shikata.
Prolific as she is in the videogame music scene, Shikata’s layered vocals and evocative compositions will be familiar to many: she’s previously featured on soundtracks for Ar Tonelico, Shadow Hearts: Ciel Nosurge, and Touken Ranbu -ONLINE-, and also starred in a recent music video trailer for NIS America’s upcoming The Cruel King and the Great Hero. She’s got three new songs on the way for Touken Ranbu Warriors, an opening theme (“Color Barrage”)—a snippet of which features in the new trailer—and two ending themes (“Honor” and “Time”).
The new trailer also shows of some of the game’s systems, including some tweaks to familiar musou-style combat that allow partner characters to fight together more closely, and a light simulation touch, tying in to Touken Ranbu -ONLINE-. As characters grow and bonds deepen, your base will grow too, and you’ll also be able to take part in mini-games and unlock special memoirs by completing achievement-style objectives (like playing minigames 10 times). There’s also a photo mode, which seems essential, given that the beautiful character designs are a big part of Touken Ranbu‘s appeal.
And finally, though there’s only a brief glimpse of him in the trailer, Koei Tecmo also announced a new character for the game: Omakage, voiced by Takuma Terashima. “A mysterious person who wields an otachi (great sword). He is calm and collected despite his somewhat fragile appearance.
He becomes involved with Mikazuki Munechika and the other honmaru Touken Danshi, but…”
Touken Ranbu Warriors is being jointly developed by Omega Force and Ruby Party for Nintendo Switch, and is due out on May 24 this year. It’s based on Touken Ranbu -ONLINE-, a popular browser-based simulation game that sees players travelling to different periods of history and raising swords turned into beautiful bishonen warriors.