Under the Radar: Shiness — A Shiny Coat of Anime

I’ve always liked anime. As evidenced by anecdotes of me eating way too many white grapes because I thought they might be Senzu beans or believing that if I focused hard enough I could punch a hole in a mountain. I soldiered on through the moe and the ecchi, finally reaching a point of perfect balance between maturity and fan service. But I keep that part of my life away from everything else. In fact, I like to keep all my hobbies away from each other like they each are carriers for hideously contagious diseases: I haven’t liked my books going into other media and I don’t read the expanded universes for any of my favorite games. So imagine my surprise to find a cross-media mix that managed to catch my attention. Enter Shiness, stage left, an indie RPG being Kickstart’d by French developer Ynnis Interactive.

In the world of Shiness, the land has been fractured into little, chunky masses called Meteora where all the various human and anthropomorphic races live in relative isolation. Somehow, though, they’ve managed to keep their language and Ynnis Interactive is promising the chance to pick apart that language. It’s not often that developers (or anyone really) puts forth the effort to create an entire language for fans to dissect and possibly embarrass their family with in public. I know from experience that the process is no cake walk and is something that people crack their heads against very soon after trying it. The more impressive fact is that Ynnis has not scrapped the idea yet, which speaks to a dedication, or boneheadness, that is to be commended. Whether or not the language or game turns out to be good is another can of worms entirely, but that persistence is a good quality to find in an independent development house.

And, if you are more inclined to pugilism than prattle, you might be interested to hear about how you’ll be fighting in Shiness. Although Shiness is an RPG, the battle system currently being promised is closer to a 3D fighter or brawler and I don’t mean 3D fighting like in Final Fantasy XII. Think more, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm whatever number they’re on right now. It looks like a fully-fledged fighting game that just so happens to tie into a persistent world once the health bars are emptied and the extreme-ultra-mega combos have been used. I’m interested in seeing how gaining levels affects what characters can do in battles with a system that seems so far removed from spamming “ATTACK” when it is your characters’ turns.

Ynnis Interactive has a world-ful of plans for Shiness ranging from a companion manga to competitive modes as stretch goals. You can find them all on the Kickstarter page. Just make sure to keep an eye on them.

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Previously on Under the Radar:

Double Click Special



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