Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory is a sci-fi themed action game for the PSP that is slated to ship inside Japan sometime during January, and stateside (thanks to Konami) in March, when the PSP ships to North America.
Players assume the role of A.D.A.M, a naive android that has suddenly found himself awakened at the bottom of a dungeon-like tower. Seeking knowledge, A.D.A.M makes his way up the tower to figure out his purpose in life… and as these things tend to go, he's quickly ambushed by other androids bent on his destruction. Soon, we discover that all of the androids inside the tower were put there by the government, but for what purpose?
That pretty much sets up the game. Players have to defeat enemy androids and acquire parts and data that can help A.D.A.M grow stronger and smarter.
On the gameplay side of things, A.D.A.M. has weapons attached to his head, both hands, body, and feet. Different weapons can be attached to these points, and while they can run out of ammunition over time, they can also be reloaded and strengthened by using them repeatedly. The unique thing about the control system is that each body part has its own button (triangle for the head, square and circle for the arms, x for the legs, and so on). This allows players to activate each weapon independently or in combination with the rest. A variety of swords, machine guns, rocket launchers, lasers, and so forth will be available to interchange.
Four players will be able to fight-it-out with one another in arena battles using the PSP's local area WiFi feature.
As you can see from our screenshots of the game (click the link over on the right when you get a chance), the graphics are 3D and the art style is noticeably futuristic. Many of the character designs were developed by Manga artist Jun Suemi, who has worked on games such as Zill O'll, Front Mission III, and Culdcept, as well as movies like Patlabor III, and has published hundreds of artworks in Manga and art book publications over the years. The dungeons look rather unspectacular right now, but Hudson has delayed the game a few weeks to jazz up that aspect of the game. We hope they succeed, because right now, the inside of the tower looks like a metal-tinged Home Depot full of boxes and thick rectangular walls