By the looks of it, Luminous Arc will be the next big SRPG for the DS. Atlus USA recently earned publishing rights for the title developed by Image Epoch, yet the absence of a release date is difficult to bear. If you can't wait for the game which boasts of  an amazing art style,  Wi-Fi connectivity, weapon creation via Vitae Imbuing system, and all the elements to expect from a top class turn-based strategy game, you might want to drop by their spankin' fresh English official website.

Clicking on the Read link below takes you to Luminous Arc's extensive site, full of info that are sure to make you drool. Taking the shoes of Alph, a soldier in the Luminous Church's elite "Garden Children" unit, players will set out on a quest to rid the world of the Witches and return peace to the world.

With music coming from Yasunori Mitsuda, and character design by Shibano Kaito, we won't be surprised if the game rivals Final Fantasy Tactics or the Nippon Ichi SRPGs. In other words, it's definitely a title to watch out for. Don't worry, we'll keep you posted.

Square Enix has teamed up with Nintendo-funded development studio Brownie Brown to develop Heroes of Mana, the real-time SRPG (strategy role playing game) for the DS.

Although the said studio is relatively new (they opened in Tokyo on June 2000), they have been working with Nintendo platforms for a very long time, including the old-school GameBoy and Super Nintendo. Their previous works include Magical Vacation, which was released in 2001 for the GBA, Legend of Mana, and Sword of Mana (an enhanced remake of Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden, known as Final Fantasy Adventure in North America).

Brownie Brown has also released a title for the Nintendo GameCube, named Gofuku, which was scheduled for release in 2005 and was announced alongside Magical Vacation: When the Five Stars Align. However, since there have been no news about the game since its release, some are saying that Gofuku has either been cancelled or is being developed for Nintendo's next-gen Wii console. As of now, this remains as mere speculation, so we'll have to wait for more info to confirm this. Meanwhile, enjoy the screens we have for you below:

    

 

Luminous Ark is an upcoming Strategy RPG. It seems to be very much along the lines of games like Final Fantasy: Tactics, Tactics Ogre, or just about any game by Nippon Ichi! From the scans, we can see that the graphics use very vibrant sprites like those found in the GBA title Riviera: The Promised Land. SRPGs aren't exactly known for focusing on graphics after all.

The touch screen can be used which should ease the pain of going through all the menus the average SRPG requires! The music and character design are being done by Yasunori Mitsuda and Shibano Kaito respectively so there are high expectations for this game.