Aiming Inc, one of the top mobile studios in Japan, recently announced its latest title, Caravan Stories. It was confirmed that the MMORPG will support cross-platform gameplay between Windows PC and mobile devices, with a goal to make it available on services such as Apple TV too. Aiming promised that community feedback will be taken seriously for the game’s development and promotions.
There are currently 6 playable races announced in Caravan Stories: Human, Elf, Dwarf, Orc, Gessy (animal-like humanoids), and Lizardman. They co-exist in the game world together, and players from different races will have different starting zones and stories. Apparently, the Lizardman race will not be available at launch, but in a future game update following the flow of the game’s main storyline.
The main plot talks about the appearance of a gate known as Enigma, from which an evil force is traveling through to destroy the world. Players must work together and defend their land from this threat. For actual gameplay in Caravan Stories, there is a strong focus in group play. Bosses appear randomly in open fields, and there will be many instances of the map to accommodate all players.
According to news articles, each player will be able to bring along a party of 6. The maximum number of players in a party is 3, which means there will be a total of 18 characters in any boss fights or raids. This system is similar to the one found in Logres: Japanese RPG, another fantasy mobile MMORPG by Aiming Inc. The English version of the game launched in selected countries just a couple of days back.
Another feature which will be brought over to Caravan Stories from Logres: Japanese RPG is the function to spectate boss fights. The aim is to let players pick up strategies from others. Cool function for a mobile game! Leveling for players mainly takes place in instanced dungeons, while Aiming Inc refers to most of the open world mobs as “Zako”, meaning they are weak and give little in return.
Monsters in Caravan Stories can be captured, followed by the upgrading of stars, which is up to 6 here. Somewhat like a Digimon game, these monsters actually evolve at different stages, changing their looks and gaining new abilities. This sound awesome, as most monster cards in mobile games are simply food to grow stronger hero cards. I wonder what special evolutions are there…
The main PVP mode is known as Coliseum, and it will involve players setting up a team of 10 to defend his or her traveling caravan from the opponent (players are traveling around the world in their caravans). This mode is described as being similar to tower defense, and will be live 24/7. Battles are asynchronous (AI), but future events might see the synchronous (real-time) system activated.
More on the Coliseum, players will be able to equip their caravans with weapons and items as well. The development team is now working on different cosmetic looks for the caravans. As for the gacha system, it was mentioned a powerful gacha hero might not be used in story mode until certain quests are completed, but it can be used in Coliseum immediately. Units can also be borrowed from friends.
Aiming Inc is daring themselves to make Caravan Stories into a mobile game which players can enjoy without paying a single cent. With the Enigma gate, the development team can be as creative as they want, and it will act as an important tool for any future IP collaboration. Aiming Inc has currently scheduled Caravan Stories for a launch this year in Japan. Stay tuned for more news and updates!
