The masterful commingling of surreal, anime-inspired visuals, fairytale-esque narrative and puzzle-fueled adventuring that was Anime 3D SFX’s 2010 debut, Antistar 3D: Rising, really struck a chord with the team here at iFanzine, so we’re absolutely delighted to be able to reveal a sneak peek at the studio’s next project by way of a batch of seriously creepy concept art.
Currently going under the working title of ‘Project Spectral,’ Anime 3D SFX’s second game appears to be more of a spiritual successor to Antistar than a straight-up sequel. That being said, it looks set to retain many of my favorite aspects of its predecessor — dream-like, rich atmospherics, bizarre enemies, heavily stylized environments and an unarmed female protagonist (hey, it makes a change from the usual tooled-up musclebound grunts we get to play as, right?) — while also taking things several shades darker tonally thanks to a newfound Lovecraftian influence.
The artwork in the gallery below gives us a great look at Project Spectral‘s heroine, Kagami, ferocious looking insectoid beasties and shadow monsters, as well as various in-game environments such as a rain-swept parking lot and the dingy interior of an eerily abandoned High School library.
Anime 3D SFX’s Thibaud de Souza revealed quite a bit more about the game during a recent e-mail chat: “(Project Spectral) is a 3D platformer set in the far east, with elements of cosmic horror à la Lovecraft. It started as a spin off of the Antistar project, the initial idea was to focus on action oriented gameplay and visual quality. For obscure reasons a loose bunch of talented artists are gravitating around the project, which already boasts an original soundtrack and a regressive (if somewhat alluring) heroine with zero fighting skill.
For players dreaming to know what it feels like to wear short skirts and sport leg warmers while being hunted by relentless, unnameable horrors, we might be selling one way tickets to Cradle Island within 2 to 4 months.” (Simply click or tap any of the thumbnails to enlarge-ify the images and view them in all their full-size glory).
Rest assured we’re going to be incessently bugging the folks at Anime 3D SFX for more information in the lead up to Project Spectral’s release, so expect plenty more info in the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, be sure to check out the game’s fantastic gallery on DeviantArt (which boasts loads more concept art along with detailed footnotes by Thibaud), Anime 3D SFX’s official site and OOgtech.org.