to begin production of Another Century's Episode. To assist in the game's development, Banpresto enlisted the help of FromSoftware, a developer known for its Armored Core franchise. It was designed by Yui Tanimura, who would later direct the Dark Souls games, and directed by Tomohiro Shibuya. The game's opening and ending themes were performed by songstress Hitomi Shimatani; she recalled the recording session having "high tension". Banpresto announced Another Century's Episode on September 1, 2004, and demonstrated it during that year's Tokyo Game Show on September 24. The game was released in Japan on January 27, 2005. To commemorate its release, Enterbrain published a strategy guide that detailed its characters, mechas, and setting. On November 2, it was re-released under the PlayStation the Best budget label. Reception Another Century's Episode was a commercial hit for both FromSoftware and Banpresto. In its first week on the market, the game sold over 175,000 copies and became a best-seller for the platform. By the end of 2005, A.C.E. was one of the top-selling video games in Japan, with sales exceeding 254,000. It performed considerably better than FromSoftware's previous licensed game, the negatively-received Spriggan: Lunar Verse for the PlayStation. The four reviewers from Famitsu magazine complimented the selection of playable mechas, their powerful attacks, and the attention to detail given to them. However, they were critical of the way they controlled, specifically while changing their altitude and orientation. Ollie Barder, a writer for GameSetWatch, likened its gameplay to Sega's Virtual On arcade fighter and its overall concept to Konami's Zone of the Enders series. He wrote that it felt like a spiritual successor to Virtual On in the way it controlled, believing that "in many ways it's a subtle change over Virtual Ons initial implementation and more akin to the anime combat that inspired Sega's real robot franchise in the first place." Barder pointed out the flaws in its combat system, specifically its imperfect hit detection and slow game speed. Retrospectively in 2012, Hardcore Gaming 101 writer Arshad Abdul-Aal favorably compared the gameplay and style of Another Century's Episode to Zone of the Enders, expressing his appreciation towards the variety of missions and solid selection of mechas. Abdul-Aal believed that the game's negative reputation online, likely due to the declining quality of its sequels, was undeserved, and concluded that it made for a fun and enjoyable game on its own accord. Legacy Many of