1UP writes: "Imagine that the Japanese had dreamed up The Wizard of Oz instead of L. Frank Baum, with everything that would entail. Now imagine that they decided to make it into a role-playing game along the lines of the Dragon Quest series. Congratulations, you can now begin to wrap your mind around D3Publisher's Riz-Zoawd.
Pretty much everything, since this is the first we've seen of the title. The demo is pretty polished, though, leading us to believe that the final product is near completion...which is a good thing since it's set to release on New Year's Day 2009."
WorthPlaying spent some time exploring The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road (the US version of RIZ-ZOAWD), which is scheduled for release at the end of the month.
"Relying on its experience in the RPG realm (Media Vision is responsible for the Wild Arms series of games), the developer took the basic story, mixed in a bit of J-RPG styling and gave Dorothy a bit of Lolita fashion sense. The net result is a game that maintains a sense of familiarity while still being a fresh take on a classic story."
From Nintendo Now:
It seems XSEED Games is showing, once again, its high interest in bringing over titles that many have doubted would ever see release outside of Japan. With their recent announcement of Sky Crawlers, a combat flight simulator for Wii, being made not too long ago, signs of another XSEED localization have appeared.
The next game to be added to XSEED's lineup is The Wizard of Oz: Beyond The Yellow Brick Road for the Nintendo DS. Many gamers probably know this game as RIZ-ZOAWD, the RPG inspired by The Wizard of Oz. Signs of this title's upcoming release have appeared on sites like GameFly and Amazon. A boxart of the game was also revealed.
Really?
I saw the game ages ago and it sounds intriguing but I'm not sure about it.
Oh yeah I knew of this game when they were still developing it. The premise just sounds awesome. RPG set in The Wizard of Oz world. How can you go wrong
Its made by Media Vidion,designers of Wild Arms,so it might turn out really good
I remember talking to Layton about this last year. Can't wait to see how this game is, Media.Vision is great developer/designer.
Yeah I remember that :) Should be fun to see if there is reasoning behind my joy of knowing I'll get to play it now
Patrick Gann writes "Michiko Naruke, composer behind the Wild Arms series, hadn't been heard from in a long time, until the recent announcement that she would be co-composing the soundtrack to RIZ-ZOAWD for the DS.
Today, we bring you a feature article, giving plenty of new information as to where Naruke has been, and where her career path may take her in the future.
The interview took place at the "Press Start Symphony of Games 2008" event in Japan, and was conducted by guest contributor Jeriaska, who has provided similar articles for RPGFan in the past.
Our sincere thanks goes to Jeriaska, Michiko Naruke, and others for providing this interview for us to host."
Great composer.She needs to get cracking on some next gen soundtracks for the PS3,360,and Wii to get back to the big leagues
@Ghost of Sparta
I couldn't agree more. I love the Wild ARMs series and I always have. I think the best games were still on the PS1, but Wild ARMs 3 and 5 on the PS2 were great in their own right. I hope she continues onto Wild ARMs 6 on the PS3, Lord knows we'd all benefit from it. As for Media Vision, they're working on RIZ-ZOAWD on the DS so hopefully a Wild ARMs will come after that.
Oh nice! I almost forgot about this game. Sounds like it has a nice full demo out there. I do hope this gets to the US!