The PR manager for Atlus already teased fans about an upcoming announcement last week, and today Atlus officially announced that Lost Dimension will be heading to both North America and Europe this summer. The game, co-developed by FuRyu and Lancarse, is a tactical RPG with gameplay that seems rather similar to Sega’s Valkyria Chronicles. The game’s story revolves around a group named S.E.A.L.E.D., consisting of 11 physically gifted warriors, who are trying to stop an extraterrestrial being known as “The End” from destroying the world. However, the protagonist Sho Kasugai soon finds that The End is not their only enemy. In fact, there are traitors among S.E.A.L.E.D. who need to be “erased” before they can turn against you.
The tactical aspect of the game is very reminiscent to Valkyria Chronicles, as you take control over the different characters in your team in a third-person perspective. After finishing a tactical battle, you can level up the characters on your team using the experience gained from battle, and you can also spend time talking to the people in your team. Doing so is essential to finding the traitor among the team. Sho also has an ability called the Gift of Vision, which allows him to read people’s thoughts and look into the future. While this ability can only be used for a limited amount of time, it can help you determine who the traitor is. When the party enters a room called the “Judgement Room”, each member gets to vote on who has to be erased. Interestingly, the traitor isn’t always the same in every playthrough, as your own decisions throughout the game end up deciding who the traitor actually is. Erasing the wrong people will of course have its consequences when you eventually reach the end boss, with the traitor still alive. For more information on the game, Siliconera has a large number of articles with more details.
The game is scheduled for release this summer on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita (compatible with PlayStation TV). The North American version will cost $39.99 and will be published by Atlus. NIS America will be handling publishing responsibilities for the game in Europe (price as of yet unknown). Atlus has also confirmed there will be both a digital and retail version for the game, but unfortunately it won’t contain the Japanese audio track. In the US blog post, PR manager John Hardin had this to say in response to fans voicing their disappointment about the lack of dual audio support:
I stand by our English dubs 100%. I think they’re fantastic and after both meeting some of the people behind them as well as having to record some VO for a few of our videos, I can confirm that it’s incredibly difficult and taxing, and English dubs are worthy of your respect.
Dual audio/Japanese voice is something we evaluate for every game, but it’s never as simple as just ticking a box or flipping a switch; please don’t accuse us of not caring.
You can find two videos of the game below. One is the official opening trailer for the game, while the second video from the Japanese version of the game shows the gameplay and following that, the Judgment phase of the game where you have to decide which member of the team will be erased (this part does contain some minor spoilers).
