Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom

[Nester the Lark]

Thought I'd go ahead and create a thread for this.

If you're not aware, Monster Boy is actually the official sequel to the classic Wonder Boy/Monster World series, originally created by Westone. The new game, however, is being developed by an indie studio called Game Atelier in collaboration with Monster World creator Ryuichi Nishizawa. This will be the first new game in the series since 1994.

The history behind this particular game is that Game Atelier was originally working on a Monster World-inspired indie game called Flying Hamster II. It was even intended to be funded via Kickstarter until it got picked up for publishing by FDG Entertainment. However, they ended up getting in touch with Ryuichi Nishizawa (perhaps it had something to do with Westone filing for bankruptcy last year), and got the rights to make an official Monster World sequel. So they completely re-tooled the game to fit into the series, except they had to change the name to Monster Boy due to Sega owning the trademarks for the names "Monster World" and "Wonder Boy."

The game is only confirmed for PS4 and PC so far, but FDG has said they're considering more platforms based on fan feedback. Most people are asking for a Wii U version, so I think it'll end up there eventually.

The official website is sparse, but the developer's blog is a little more interesting. The most recent entry revealed that the game will have fully animated, hand-drawn FMV cutscenes!

I love the Wonder Boy/Monster World series, and I'm thrilled to see it coming back, even if it's not coming directly from Westone. Hopefully, it will still have Nishizawa's touch.

[Nester the Lark]

Here's a new update showing how they've improved the human form of the main character. Looks a lot better, IMHO! I like his new outfit with the cape, and his hair looks better.

[Nester the Lark]

It's been announced that Yuzo Koshiro will be doing some composing for Monster Boy! (Source)

[Nester the Lark]

A clip of the hand-drawn animation from intro was posted on the blog. Looks great!

[Nester the Lark]

This was released a few months ago, but here's the first gameplay trailer for Monster Boy:



I mentioned above that Yuzo Koshiro was contributing some music to it, but it sounds like he might be more involved than that, overseeing the whole soundtrack, and it will also include contributions from Michiru Yamane and Motoi Sakuraba (Dark Souls, Tales of, Kid Icarus: Uprising).

FDG Entertainment also said they want to make a Wii U (or possibly NX) version, but they're a small company and don't have the resources to work on it with the other versions, so it could come later if it does well on PS4/XB1/PC.

[kirbychu]

It's definitely looking gorgeous. I think I'll have to pick this up on Steam at some point.

[Arcadenik]

Very nice... the animal transformations remind me of Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap.

[Nester the Lark]

One thing that really gets me about this game is that sometimes you see fan art of what someone thinks a classic game series should look like in modern HD (and still with 2D graphics), and Monster Boy actually looks like that. It's like someone's fantasy concept art come to life.

It really seems to be a passion project for Game Atelier and FDG. I hope it plays as good as it looks.

[Nester the Lark]

Unrelated to Monster Boy, there's apparently an official remake of Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap on the way from a studio called Lizardcube. The official site has a countdown to the announcement.

Lizardcube seems to be a Paris-based developer, which is interesting because Game Atelier is also in Paris. I'm less-thrilled to see DotEmu because I never really hear anything positive about them.

I assume Ryuichi Nishizawa is involved to some degree since he retweeted the announcement. It's interesting that, unlike Monster Boy, they're actually using the Wonder Boy name. I thought Sega had it trademarked.

I also hope it doesn't end up being a mobile-only game.

[kirbychu]

Sega actually seem to be pretty cool with stuff like that. I know they handed the Toejam & Earl trademark over without asking for anything in return, and it sounds like Suzuki getting the rights to make Shenmue III without Sega was pretty painless too.

[nocturnal YL]

Which makes me wonder why it took D4 Enterprise forever to finally release the Madou Monogatari compilation. Fans have been asking for it for ages, and a proper sequel was even released in the meantime. Some suspected it had to do with difficulty in getting a license from SEGA.

[Nester the Lark]

Also, I believe FDG has mentioned in the past that they tried to get permission from Sega to use the names Wonder Boy and/or Monster World, but were unsuccessful. Maybe it has to do with Dragon's Trap being a remake and not a new game like Monster Boy.

Anyway, here's a new developer's blog with some new screenshots.

[Nester the Lark]

And here's the reveal trailer for the Dragon's Trap remake:



Platforms are listed vaguely as "Consoles/PC." New art and screenshots at the official site, also.

[Nester the Lark]

Here's the latest trailer for Monster Boy from Gamescom:



Cool to see the Monster Lair section in there.

Also, they confirmed it was coming to a Nintendo platform, but didn't say which. A couple of months ago, however, they mentioned they had a Wii U dev kit.

[Nester the Lark]

Here's a dev diary for the Dragon's Trap remake that includes an interview with Ryuichi Nishizawa: