Lord of Arcana, the Monster Hunter-y PSP game Square Enix announced last week, is set to get a very extensive (and very free) demo — in Japan, anyway. The downloadable demo, which debuts August 19 in that region, is set to feature new scenarios added on regular occasions, allowing you to play right on up until the day of release. What’s more, you’ll be able to take the hunter…er, sorry, “Slayer” data you build in the demo and carry it over to the retail game unscathed, should you buy it. Kind of them.
Square Enix also spent some time in this week’s run of Japanese game magazines to discuss Lord of Arcana’s battle system. The game takes a more traditional JRPG-like approach to fighting than Monster Hunter, it turns out, at least when it comes to the encounter system. Battles kick off only when you touch a monster on the main game map, rather than in pseudo-realtime — and if one of your fellow players touches a monster during multiplayer, all players in the area are also thrown into the battle.
Your Slayer will have four action commands available during a fight, one assigned to each PSP button. The Square button is your basic attack; Triangle is reserved for “skill attacks” (no details on those yet); X is guard, and Circle lets you fire magic attacks that deplete a mana gauge at the bottom of the screen. When this gauge is full, you’re able to unleash an “Ultimate Spell” that’s unique to your character; these ultimates can be combined between Slayers in multiplayer for even more power.
